Measurement of tonsillar blood flow in normal and pathological conditions by the use of the 133Xe clearance technique.

By using the 133Xe clearance technique, we measured the blood flow to the human palatine tonsil in 10 normal volunteers, 11 patients with chronic tonsillitis, and 11 with hypertrophic tonsils. We found that the mean blood flow was 30.08 +/- 5.39 ml/ 100 g per min in normal tonsils, 17.06 +/- 3.72 in chronic tonsillitis and 49.50 +/- 9.30 in hypertrophic tonsils. Our results show a statistically significant decrease in blood flow in chronic tonsillitis (P less than 0.01) and a significant increase in hypertrophic tonsils (P less than 0.01) when compared to the normal controls. The difference between the blood flow in chronic tonsillitis and hypertrophic tonsils was also statistically significant (P less than 0.01). In all three groups studied, no statistically significant difference was observed in the blood flow to the right and left tonsils (P greater than 0.05).