[Incidence of ciliary beats in nasal cells obtained from smears. Study of 40 patients of whom 28 were children with respiratory pathology].

Disturbance of ciliary function are considered as a significant factor in the outcome of chronic respiratory afflictions. Thanks to a simple method of stroboscopic lighting, the ciliary beat frequency was studied on 40 nasal mucus smears obtained by swabbing in 28 children and 12 adults with chronic respiratory failure or recurrent disease. The 28 children were divided into three groups: group A (n = 10), pulmonary disease (broncho-pneumonia); group B (n = 3), Kartagener syndrome; group C (n = 15) pure otorhinolaryngological (ORL) disease (rhino-opharyngitis, sinusitis, otitis). Twelve adults with chronic ORL pathology (vaso-motor rhinitis) made up group D. A cytological control was carried out on each smear and showed the presence of ciliated cells in 92.5% of samples. In three group B cases (Kartagener's syndrome) no ciliary movement was observed. The results in groups A (9.3 +/- 1.46 Hz) and C (8.98 +/- 2.23 Hz) show that the level of respiratory infection (pulmonary or ORL) did not influence the ciliary beat frequency (p greater than 0.05). On the other hand, there was a significant difference (p less than 0.001) between the beat frequency in the group of children in group A (9.3 +/- 1.46 Hz) and C (8.98 +/- 2.23 Hz) and those of adults in group D (11.32 +/- 1.89 Hz). Two hypotheses might explain these facts: The existence of a differing physiological response in children and adults. Different mechanisms during chronic ORL infections in adults (vasomotor phenomena) and in the child (bacterial infection). The average frequencies measured were comparable to those previously published in human respiratory cilia using other methods.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)