[The connections between smoking, mucociliary clearance and airway obstruction]

The connection between smoking habits (pack years, smoker and ex-smoker period), mucociliary clearance (mC) and the obstruction of the respiratory passages was investigated in 17 ex-smokers (7 without bronchitis; 10 with bronchitis) and 48 smokers (13 without bronchitis; 35 with bronchitis). The ex-smokers without chronic bronchitis showed the same clearing behaviour as the healthy non-smokers, but the non-smokers did not have the least obstruction of the respiratory system. The smokers without chronic bronchitis showed a normal lung function, but a worse clearing behaviour than the healthy non- and ex-smokers (p less than 0,01). Compared to volunteers without bronchitic symptoms the ex-smokers and smokers with chronic bronchitis had a bad clearing behaviour (p less than 0,001) and a distinctly obstructive ventilation disorder. Furthermore, it was noticeable that the ex-smokers with persistent bronchitis showed the worst respiratory system obstructions, whilst the smokers with chronic bronchitis had the greatest restriction of the central mC (c-mC) with less respiratory system obstruction than the ex-smokers with chronic bronchitis. The smoking habits (pack years) correlated with the decrease of the mC (p less than 0,01) and the grade of the respiratory system obstruction (p less than 0,001).