Who founded cystic fibrosis?

im doing a research paper and cant find this awnser and its about to drive me crazy omm basically its on cystic fibrosis and i need to know who founded it or who was the person

Cystic fibrosis (CF) was recognised as specific entity during the Thirties. There is nothing resembling CF described in the 1032 pages of Sir Frederick Still's 1927 Edition of Common Disorders and Diseases of Childhood.

Although there are many early reports of infants from the middle of 17th century who almost certainly had cystic fibrosis (Busch, 1990), even before the well-known passage from German Children's Songs and Games from Switzerland forecasting that "The child will soon die whose forehead tastes salty when kissed".

In 1905, Landsteiner, of blood group fame, described meconium ileus, the neonatal intestinal obstruction that affects some 15% of infants with cystic fibrosis (Landsteiner et al, 1905). In 1912, Garrod described families some of whose children had steatorrhoea and who died of bronchopneumonia, suggesting a possible recessive mode of inheritance (Garrod & Hurley, 1912). During the Twenties and Thirties there were further reports of children who were likely to have had cystic fibrosis (Kulczycki, 1990).

In 1936 the legendary Swiss paediatrician Fanconi described children with 'coeliac syndrome' who also had pancreatic changes but he published in German! (Fanconi et al, 1936). In 1938 Blackfan and May described 35 infants with pancreatic changes (Blackfan & May, 1938), which had been reported in 1933 (Blackfan & Wolbach, 1933). Also Harper described a further 10 children with clinical features compatible with cystic fibrosis (Harper, 1938).

DOROTHY ANDERSEN'S 1938 PAPER


Although some consider Fanconi's paper to be the first clear description of cystic fibrosis (Fanconi et al, 1936), it was the 1938 report of Dorothy Andersen, the pathologist at the Babies' Hospital New York, which clearly defined CF a separate entity. Andersen described in great detail 49 patients, 20 from her hospital and others from colleagues and the literature. The paper, Cystic fibrosis of the pancreas and its relation to celiac disease: A clinical and pathologic study describes neonatal intestinal obstruction, intestinal and respiratory complications and many other features - particularly the characteristic pancreatic histology (Andersen, 1938). She likened much of the epithelial histology to that found in vitamin A deficiency but this causation was never substantiated although she continued to support this theory for many years (Andersen, 1949).

Thus, Cystic Fibrosis of the Pancreas was described as a definite clinical entity in 1938. But it is not surprising that CF infants could easily go unrecognised. We should recall that the state of health of children in this country was very different from today. Before the Second World War there was no National Health Service. Infant and child mortality was high, and throughout childhood respiratory disease, measles, non-respiratory tuberculosis, whooping cough, diphtheria and violence accounted for the majority of child deaths (Chief Medical Officer's Report, Lancet 1937; i: 299). Also communications were relatively primitive by modern standards - there were few medical meetings, no Medline, no e-mail, no fax, no photocopiers and no evidenced-based medicine.