Mucociliary clearance in relation to clinical features in patients with bronchiectasis

Patients with bronchiectasis were collected from a register covering all hospital stays within the county of Stockholm. They were asked to come for an interview, a clinical examination and to participate in a study of lung mucociliary clearance. The subjects inhaled 6 microns Teflon particles labelled with 99mTc and radioactivity was measured externally. Clearance varied from normal to extremely slow. The average retention of the Teflon particles at 2 h was significantly higher in the 21 patients, 65 +/- 27% (mean +/- SD), than in healthy nonsmokers, 36 +/- 22%. Clearance was more impaired the more generalized the airway symptoms were, the more continuous they were, and the earlier in life they had started; all features which indicate a coherence with the immotile cilia syndrome, an obvious "model disease" in this context. Clearance was studied separately in the two lungs in 18 patients and was similar in both lungs, with one exception.