National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases 4th International Conference on Newborn Screening for C.F.

The proposed International Meeting on Newborn Screening for Cystic Fibrosis is designed to provide current information on neonatal screening for Cystic Fibrosis (CF) to physicians (pediatric pulmonologists, gastroenterologists, pathologists, geneticists), State Health Department laboratory personnel, nutritionists and clinical psychologists. Investigators from the United States and several other countries will be invited to present their clinical and laboratory experience in CF screening. Such a meeting is considered timely, since the recent discovery of the CF gene may provide a new technique for screening and diagnosis, and its potential for improving the neonatal screening process is under active investigation at several centers around the world. The gene discovery and its implications for neonatal screening will be a major focus of this meeting. The ethical issues surrounding newborn carrier detection will also be discussed. This conference should be valuable to policy makers who wish to determine whether or not newborn screening for this disease should be widely implemented in the United States. The proceedings will be published as a supplement to 'Pediatric Pulmonology'.