A four week trial of hypertonic saline in children with mild cystic fibrosis lung disease: Effect on mucociliary clearance and clinical outcomes.

Background: Hypertonic saline (HS) is commonly prescribed for children with cystic fibrosis (CF) despite the absence of strong data indicating clinical efficacy in a population with mild lung disease. We hypothesized that HS treatment would result in a sustained improvement in mucociliary clearance (MCC) in children with CF who had minimal lung disease, thus providing evidence for a biologically relevant effect that also may be associated with clinical improvements.

Methods: We performed a randomized, placebo controlled, double blind study of 6% versus 0.