Following the initial development of the scintillation camera by Anger (1), further improvements and innovations have led to its extensive use in such areas as diagnostic oncology, organ deliniation, and physiological function studies. Indeed, in the last few years, the scintillation camera has evolved to serve a variety of applications in the medical field (2). The development of a one-dimensi...

Mucociliary transport in the airways significantly depends on the liquid and mucin components of the airway surface liquid (ASL). The regulation of ASL water and mucin content during pathological conditions is not well understood. We hypothesized that airway epithelial mucin production and liquid transport are regulated in response to inflammatory stimuli and tested this hypothesis by investiga...

Theoretical models of respiratory tract deposition of inhaled particles are compared to experimental studies of deposition patterns in humans and animals, as governed principally by particle size, density, respiratory rate and flow parameters. Various models of inhaled particle deposition make use of approximations of the respiratory tract to predict fractional deposition caused by fundamental ...

Luminal accumulation of viscous, poorly hydrated, and less transportable mucus has been associated with altered mucus rheology and reduced mucociliary clearance. These symptoms are some of the cardinal clinical manifestations found throughout major respiratory diseases as well as gastrointestinal and digestive disorders. Applications of current mucolytics may yield short-term improvements but a...

Mucociliary clearance (MCC), a vital key defense mechanism is especially important in the upper airways and sinuses, as it protects the body against noxious inhaled materials [1]. The removal of debris-laden mucus in the sinuses completely depends on MCC, whereas in the lower airways, MCC can be compensated for by other mechanisms like coughing [2]. The nasal mucociliary clearance (NMC) system ...

BACKGROUND Tracheobronchial clearance of mucus from the lungs is reduced during sleep and, usually, by the administration of opiates. It seemed possible therefore that temazepam, a widely used potent benzodiazepine, retarded clearance. METHODS The effect of 10 mg temazepam on mucociliary clearance was studied in eight healthy volunteers, aged 18-50 (mean 30) years, in a randomised, placebo co...

The innate immune functions of human airways include mucociliary clearance and antimicrobial peptide activity. Both functions may be affected by changes in epithelial ion transport. Interleukin-17A (IL-17A), which has a receptor at the basolateral membrane of airway epithelia, is a T cell cytokine that has been shown to increase mucus secretion and antimicrobial peptide production by human bron...

T he measurement of sweat electrolytes successfully diagnoses all but a tiny minority of patients with cystic fibrosis (CF). The discovery of a gene for CF, encoding the cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR), has led to the understanding that CFTR is a chloride channel (hence the utility of the measurement of sweat electrolytes) and also regulates other ion channels, in par...

The lung is continuously exposed to the external environment and mixtures of complex antigens through the air. It is estimated that the resting human adult inhales 12,000 liters of air per day, while even mild physical activity can double or triple this amount (1). Protective immunity against inhaled antigens is mediated by the lymphocytes that are localized to the surface of the respiratory tr...