You are here

Article Text

Article menu

Download PDFPDF

Research Article
Ciliary beat frequency in transplanted lungs.
Free
  1. D Veale,
  2. P N Glasper,
  3. A Gascoigne,
  4. J H Dark,
  5. G J Gibson,
  6. P A Corris
  1. Department of Respiratory Medicine, Freeman Hospital, Newcastle upon Tyne.

    Abstract

    BACKGROUND--Patients with lung transplantation are prone to respiratory infections. Generally this is attributable to the effects of immunosuppressive drugs but mucociliary clearance has been found to be impaired in these subjects. A study was performed to determine whether this finding is accompanied by a reduction in ciliary beat frequency (CBF). METHODS--Six patients who had undergone single lung transplantation for fibrosing lung disease were investigated. CBF was measured in mucosal samples from native and transplanted bronchi by a videophotometry method. RESULTS--The CBF was reduced in the transplanted bronchi in all cases when both fastest and slowest beating cilia were examined. The fastest beating cilia on the native side had a mean (SD) CBF of 12.1 (1.3) Hz compared with 9.6 (2.0) Hz on the transplanted side. The slowest beating cilia also had reduced CBF on the transplanted side. CONCLUSION--In patients with fibrotic lung disease, CBF is reduced in transplanted bronchi in comparison with native bronchi.

    https://doi.org/10.1136/thx.48.6.629

    Statistics from Altmetric.com

      Request Permissions

      If you wish to reuse any or all of this article please use the link below which will take you to the Copyright Clearance Center’s RightsLink service. You will be able to get a quick price and instant permission to reuse the content in many different ways.