[Quantitative study of mucociliary clearance using static scintigraphy].

Mucociliary clearance can be evaluated by radionuclide techniques, but such approaches have been usually implemented only in research-oriented laboratories because of technical difficulties. A very practical radionuclide method is here presented which requires only three static acquisitions after the inhalation of a polydisperse radioaerosol produced by a commercial generator. Data processing is also very simple. The diagnostic performance of the method was tested on a study population of 10 healthy subjects and 10 patients with atrophic bronchitis; a highly significant difference between normal and pathological patients was found. Its simple implementation and diagnostic yield recommend this radionuclide method for the routine assessment of mucociliary clearance also in busy clinical-oriented laboratories.