Comparison of Surrogate Parameters between CF-Patients in Frankfurt and Moscow (1990-2015)

Background: Previous studies have demonstrated that CF prognosis is dependent of three major parameters: FEV1, BMI and need of intravenous antibiotic therapy. The CF centres of Frankfurt, Germany, and Moscow, Russia, care for cystic fibrosis patients. We decided to investigate and compare both centers from 1990 to 2015. No comparable study has been published so far. Methods: German patient data was collected from the national cystic fibrosis database “Muko.web”. Missing values were extracted from the Hospital Information System. Russian patient data were taken directly from the medical records in Moscow. In a descriptive statistical analysis with Bias and RStudio the values were compared. Results: 428 patients from Moscow (217 male, 211 female; 348 (81.3%) were P. aeruginosa positive) and 159 patients from Frankfurt (92 male, 67 female; 137 (86.2%) with P. aeruginosa positive) were compared with regard to P. aeruginosa positivity, BMI, FEV1 and need of intravenous antibiotic therapy. CF patients in Moscow stratified by age groups had lower BMI than CF patients in Frankfurt (age 1618: p = 0.003; age 19-22: p = 0.004; age 23-29: p < 0.001; age 30-35: p < 0.001; age 36-66: p = 0.024). In a matching pairs analysis including 100 patients from Frankfurt and 100 patients from Moscow for the year 2015 FEV1 was significantly lower in Moscow patients (p < 0.001). Conclusions: This study showed a significant difference in prognostic parameters between Frankfurt and Moscow in the cross-sectional analysis for the year 2015. A further study should evaluate this difference to show whether this difference will be found over a longer period of time.