Functional and morphological pathology of chronic sinusitis mucous membrane.

The previous paper (Part I) in our study described how a decrease in the frequency of ciliary beating was responsible for the deceleration of mucociliary transport in chronic sinusitis. In the present work, it was examined whether or not the reduction in ciliary beating frequency is associated with morphological changes in the mucosal epithelium. As a result, a very close correlation was found between them: the more severe the morphological changes, the more the beating frequency was reduced. The morphological changes of the mucosal epithelium in chronic sinusitis were swelling of the ciliary membrane, formation of compound cilia, dropping of epithelial cells, and metaplasia of a squamous epithelium. On the basis of these observations on ciliary beating and the fine structure of the mucosal epithelium, the severity of pathological change of the mucous membrane in chronic sinusitis was graded.