A Study to Investigate Cystic Fibrosis Pulmonary Exacerbations and the Lung Microbiome

The present application proposes to study the role the composition of the pediatric CF airway microbiota plays in frequent pulmonary exacerbations in pediatric CF patients. In order to accomplish this goal the dynamics of the composition of the CF airway microbiota in two distinct subsets of pediatric patients with CF will be characterized, those with frequent pulmonary exacerbations and clinically stable children. Clinical measures of pulmonary function, patient reported symptoms, sleep quality, and antibiotic usage will be recorded, and these findings will be correlated with the lung microbiota data. This strategy promises to identify the key characteristics of the pediatric CF microbiota, which can in turn be used as noninvasive markers to identify those patients at a higher risk for experiencing repeated pulmonary exacerbations.