Nasal mucociliary clearance in Sjögren's syndrome. Dissociation in flow between sol and gel layers

Nasal mucociliary clearance was measured with two methods in 8 patients with Sjögren's syndrome and in 6 normal subjects. The movement of two different tracers placed 1.5 cm posterior to the inferior turbinate tip was measured respectively. The transport rate of a 500 microns anion resin particle tagged with 99mTc was measured. The clearance of 10 microliters saline labelled with 99mTc was monitored and the clearance rate was calculated. Whereas the measurement with the particle method revealed the lowered transport rate in Sjögren's syndrome, measurement with the saline method did not reveal any difference in clearance rate between the two groups. Since the former method measures the transport of particle in the gel phase (the outer mucous layer) and the latter measures the clearance of both gel and sol (periciliary fluid) layers, it is postulated that there is a dissociation of flow between sol and gel layers in Sjögren's syndrome.