Study on Cystic Fibrosis Criticized
1 A. W. Mellon Program in Clinical Epidemiology, University of California, 211 Gough St, 3rd floor, San Francisco, CA 94102
To the Editor.
The study design and data of Ater et al1 do not justify the authors' conclusion that iron deficiency contributes to relative anemia in patients wih cystic fibrosis. The statistically significant (but meager) increase in hemoglobin concentration in their study came only after vitamin E was added to the regimen of oral iron. They apparently assume that since an increase in hemoglobin could not be correlated with an initially low serum tocopherol level, the vitamin E supplementation had no effect.




