Cystic fibrosis (CF) is a genetic disease caused by malfunctioning of a protein called CFTR.
CF affects various organs including the sweat glands and the lungs. An FDA approved drug called ivacaftor helps some people with CF, and laboratory tests show that it produces further improvement when combined with an investigational drug called lumacaftor. However, results from clinical tests of the two drugs used together gave mixed results: lung function improved but sweat gland function did not improve. This study will measure CFTR-dependent sweat rate to test the hypothesis that CFTR in the normal sweat glands might be functioning at peak efficiency, and so can't be improved further with ivacaftor, thus accounting for the apparent discrepancy between lung function and sweat gland results. CFTR-dependent sweat rate is important to understanding CF because it is a very accurate measure of CFTR function.
