[Bronchial mucociliary clearance in chronic bronchitics (author's transl)]

Bronchial mucociliary clearance is analysed in 13 clinically stable patients with chronic bronchitis in comparison with 7 normal non smokers by measuring the rate of removal of inhaled monodispersed particles of resin (diameter: 8.1 +/- 3.5 micrometer) tagged with 99mTc. Particles delivered with a high insufflation rate are uniformly deposited on proximal airways. The pattern of distribution is comparable in all the subjects studied. In normal non smokers, the percentage of bronchial radioactivity cleared 1 h after the inhalation was 34 +/- 11.2 percent. The patients may be divided into 2 groups: Group 1 (n = 6) is characterized by a mucociliary clearance similar to the normals while group 2 (n = 7) shows a low mucociliary transport rate (decrease of bronchial radioactivity after 4 h less than 10 percent).