Regional mucociliary clearance in patients with cystic fibrosis.

This paper reports on a large retrospective analysis of mucociliary clearance (MCC) studies in a group of 59 patients with cystic fibrosis (CF) and 17 age-matched healthy subjects. As many of the CF patients were studied on multiple occasions, a total of 184 patient studies are presented. MCC was measured using a radioaerosol and gamma camera technique. In addition to whole lung clearance, MCC was measured from the central, intermediate, peripheral, basal, mid and apical regions of the lung. MCC was markedly decreased in the CF patient group. Not only was whole lung clearance (14.2 ± 1.4% vs. 28.0 ± 3.7%) impaired, but also clearance from the central (19.1 ± 1.9% vs. 35.6 ± 4.3%), intermediate (10.7 ± 1.6% vs. 25.5 ± 3.7%), apical (12.4 ± 2.6% vs. 31.6 ± 4.6%) and mid (14.0 ± 1.9% vs. 30.4 ± 4.0%) regions. Attempts were made to identify factors that may have influenced MCC in both the normal subjects and CF patients. Age, gender, body mass index, patient genotype, penetration index, spontaneous cough, and...