Normative Data of Nasal Mucociliary Clearance Time in healthy Indian population - A Preliminary study

Manish Verma; Jyoti Yadav; Uma Garg; Jai Prakash Narayan; Prikshit

Volume : VIII, Issue : II, February - 2019

Normative Data of Nasal Mucociliary Clearance Time in healthy Indian population - A Preliminary study

Manish Verma, Jyoti Yadav, Uma Garg, Jai Prakash Narayan, Prikshit

Abstract :

Nasal mucociliary clearance is a physiological defence mechanism of nasal cavity and it depends upon the nasal secretion and ciliary movement. The mucociliary system comprises of wave like beating of cilia of mucosal cells and movement of thin overlying mucus blanket with its entrapped particles towards the nasopharynx. This gets affected in abnormalities of cilia as well as the mucus and it is determined to obtain an in vivo measurement of the effectiveness of the interaction between the them. Various techniques are employed for measuring NMC namely saccharin test and tests using dyes or radio labeled particles. Saccharin test, an inexpensive, simple, reproducible and non–invasive method was used in this study in 200 healthy subjects. The mean value of nasal mucociliary clearance obtained was 7.25 � 0.20 minutes (range 5.5–17.5 minutes). It was 7.20�0.38 in males and 7.11�0.26 in females. There was no statistical difference between the two genders (p>0.05).