RT Journal
A1 Hicks JM
T1 SWeat tests
JF JAMA
JO JAMA
YR 1979
FD May 25
VO 241
IS 21
SP 2264
OP 2265
DO 10.1001/jama.1979.03290470016013
UL http://dx.doi.org/10.1001/jama.1979.03290470016013
AB To the Editor.— 
    I feel obliged to reply to Dr Shwachmann's letter (240:2731, 1978) regarding the high frequency of unreliable sweat tests for cystic fibrosis and his statement that the cause is the lack of interest of clinical chemists. I agree that sweat tests are frequently not performed reliably, but I wonder why the clinical chemist has been singled out as being responsible when most hospital laboratories are still directed by pathologists and not by professional clinical chemists. Certainly in our laboratory the sweat test is performed exactly as described by the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation in its publication, Procedure for the Quantitative Iontophoretic Sweat Test for Cystic Fibrosis, by Gibson, Sant' Agnese, and Shwachmann. We report the weight of sweat collected and the concentration of sodium and chloride and run the test twice. In addition to our laboratory, I know of many other hospital clinical chemistry laboratories in which the