Nevertheless, the majority of both female and male reported low levels mainly of discomfort. Also, the great major ity of the individuals inquired reported that this is a painless procedure, regardless of sedation, age or gender. Only 2 individuals assessed the proced ure as Very painful. Moreover the vast majority of the individuals accepted repeating this procedure for at least once more, while only a minor ity do not wish to repeat it, also independently of sedation, age and gender. When asked to indicate which steps of the procedure they considered as the leastmost uncomfortable, data shows that the monitoring was considered by the highest percentage as Not uncomfortable or Least uncomfortable, followed by the biopsing and the bowel preparation, and finally the sigmoidoscopy.

For the individuals being sedated, the sedation step was also well tolerated, as Inhibitors,Modulators,Libraries much as the monitoring step. Furthermore, as somewhat expected, sedation significantly enhances the rate of Not uncomfortable responses regarding the sigmoidoscopy and the biopsing procedures. No differences were found regarding gender or age. Concerning the comparative assessment of the rectal biopsy procedure with other clinicaldiagnosis examina tions, most of the individuals classified the overall rectal biopsy procedure as being more unpleasant than Inhibitors,Modulators,Libraries sweat test, followed by spirometry and blood collection, regardless of gender, age Inhibitors,Modulators,Libraries or sedation. No conclusions could be drawn concerning NPD, nasal brushing or bronchoscopy, Inhibitors,Modulators,Libraries because more than 65% of the individuals had not experienced those proce dures or were unable to establish a comparison.

Finally, when patients where asked about their pre conceptual concerns regarding the Inhibitors,Modulators,Libraries procedure, the reported answers were similar 46. 7% for preconcep tiontaboo and 41. 3% for discomfortpain. The remaining 12% did not answer. Discussion Measurements of CFTR function in rectal biopsy speci mens have proven its value in the fine diagnosis of patients with milder or non classical forms of CF, in particular when sweat test results are equivocal or border line andor if CFTR disease causing mutations are not readily identified by DNA mutation analysis. This approach also serves as a sensitive test to predict the prog nosis when rare CFTR mutations are not identified by standard screening tests. Compared to the air ways, the rectal epithelium is easily accessible at any age, expresses higher levels of CFTR, thus increasing robustness of the measurements and, as shown here, does not undergo major secondary tissue destructionremodel ling as those occurring in CF airways. Moreover, this technique has even potential for a much wider scope, namely to monitor diseases, Imatinib Mesylate Bcr-Abl inhibitor affecting epithelial ion transport.