Nasal mucociliary clearance in patients with upper and lower respiratory diseases

The nasal mucociliary clearance was measured in 71 subjects with nasal allergy (NA) (56 subjects without sinusitis and 15 with sinusitis), 12 subjects with bronchial asthma (BA) (7 without, 5 with) and 7 subjects with aspirin-induced asthma (AIA) using a saccharin test. The results were compared with those obtained in a control group of 15 healthy subjects. The saccharin time (ST) values for both NA and BA subjects without sinusitis (16.9 +/- 9.9 and 20.1 +/- 9.4 min, respectively) did not differ from that of the healthy subjects (16.3 +/- 5.3 min). However, ST values in NA and BA subjects with sinusitis (37.6 +/- 22.9 and 57.0 +/- 6.7 min, respectively) were significantly higher than those of healthy subjects (p < 0.01). The ST value of AIA subjects (13.0 +/- 5.4 min) showed no significant difference compared with that of the control group. These results suggest that allergic reactions do not influence the nasal mucociliary clearance and that the property of mucus complicated with sinusitis is important. Also, sinusitis observed in AIA may be somewhat different from ordinary sinusitis complicated with NA and BA.