Ciliary Ultrastructure and Mucociliary Transport in Upper Respiratory Tract Infections

Abstract

The ciliary ultrastructure in transmission electron microscopy and nasal mucociliary transport rate (MTR) by a radioisotopic method were studied in 50 patients with longstanding upper respiratory tract infections. The clinical symptoms correlated well with MTR. The symptoms in patients with MTR 3 mm/min or better were mild, but the patients with poor MTR (less than 3 mm/min) suffered from recurrent or severe infections. The completely normal ultrastructural findings were found only in patients with MTR better than 3 mm/min. All the patients with poor MTR had pathological ciliary ultrastructure, with numerous tubular anomalies and disorientation of ciliary beat direction. The outer dynein arms were found to be short in 16% of cases with poor MTR.