TITLE: Understanding CF Lung Therapies

Dr. Joan DeCelie-Germana, director of the CF Center at Schneider Children’s Hospital in New Hyde Park, New York, and assistant professor of pediatrics at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx, New York discusses the importance in maintaining a consistent daily treatment regimen to manage lung disease.

· With the help of today’s CF lung therapies, CF patients are now living longer and more active lives than ever before.
· Pulmonary treatments, especially the standard therapies, are critical to helping CF patients stay as healthy as possible.
· For optimum health, it’s important to adhere to a doctor-recommended treatment schedule each day, and to take the treatments in the right order.
· A recommended order of daily treatment for a CF patient is Bronchodialator, Pulmozyme® (dornase alfa), The Vest or similar chest wall oscillator, and then TOBI® (tobramycin solution for inhalation), but your doctor will recommend the treatment schedule that’s right for you. Add-on therapies such as hypertonic saline may be appropriate for certain patient populations.
· Getting regular physical exercise and following a nutritious, high-calorie diet are also important for maintaining good health.