Abstract
Nasal mucociliary clearance was measured in healthy human subjects, laryngectomized patients and patients with chronic sinusitis, Sjogren's syndrome or Kartagener's syndrome. A Tc99m tagged resin particle technique for the measurernent of mucociliary transport rate(MTR) and a saccharin granule technique for the measurement of mucociliary transit time(ST) were used in this study.
MTR averaged 6.4mm/min±3.4 in normal control subjects and 7.0mm/min±4.1 in laryngectomized patients. MTR in the patients with chronic sinusitis or Sjogren's syndrome averaged 3.5mm/min±2.6 and 1.8mm/min±2.8, respectively. They were significantly lower than control. The observed depression of particle transport in the patients with chronic sinusitis or Sjogren's syndrome could be due to quantitative and qualitative changes in nasal secretion. The particle movement was not observed in a patient with Kartagener's syndrome.
ST averaged 14.3min±6.6 in 20 normal subjects, 3 patients with chronic sinusitis and a patient with nasal allergy. ST in 7 normal subjects averaged 14.8min±3.1 in a long term observation. Interindividual variation for ST was smaller than that for MTR. Although significant inverse correlation between MTR and ST was found, there were some occations of slow clearance in MTR with fast ST clearance, and vise versa. Saccharin technique was found to be simple and useful for a measurement of mucociliary transit time. The difference between these two methods might be explained by the notion that the MTR measured the mucus clearance and the ST might reflect clearance performed by both periciliary fluid and mucus.
