Aquagenic wrinkling of the palms in cystic fibrosis: comparison with controls and genotype-phenotype correlations.

OBJECTIVE: To determine the prevalence of aquagenic wrinkling of the palms (AWP) in patients with cystic fibrosis (CF) compared with control patients, and evaluate for genotype-phenotype correlations. Since its first description over 30 years ago, AWP has frequently been anecdotally associated with CF, but this association has not been confirmed in a rigorous prospective case-control study.

DESIGN: Blinded comparison.

SETTING: The CF and dermatology clinics at St Louis Children's Hospital.

PARTICIPANTS: Forty-four individuals with CF from a CF clinic and 26 controls from a dermatology clinic. Intervention Participants were tested for AWP using 3 minutes of water immersion with room-temperature tap water. Main Outcome Measure The degree of AWP was scored from 0 (no wrinkling) to 4 (severe wrinkling) by 3 blinded physicians. For genotype-phenotype correlations, patients with CF were divided into those homozygous for the DeltaF508 mutation and those with other genotypes.

RESULTS: The mean AWP score of the CF group was significantly higher than the mean score of the control group (1.5 vs 0.6; P < .001). Patients with CF who were homozygous for the DeltaF508 mutation (n = 27) had significantly higher scores than patients with CF who were not homozygous for the DeltaF508 mutation (n = 17) (1.7 vs 1.1; P = .02). The 17 patients with CF who were not homozygous for the DeltaF508 mutation still had higher scores than the control group (1.1 vs 0.6; P = .03). There was no correlation between sweat chloride concentrations measured at the time of diagnosis and AWP score.

CONCLUSIONS: Our results confirm the association between AWP and CF. Among patients with CF, greater AWP occurs in those who are homozygous for the DeltaF508 mutation.