Mucociliary transport and ultrastructural abnormalities in Polynesian bronchiectasis.

Ciliated bronchial or nasal epithelium from 20 Polynesian bronchiectatic patients was examined in an electron microscope. In all patients there was a partial or complete loss of dynein arms. Also, in many patients other ciliary abnormalities were present with a high proportion, often over 25%, of cilia affected. This contrasts with a control group where ciliary abnormalities were infrequent. Mucociliary clearance, measured by imaging 99mTc sulfide dust with a gamma camera, was either absent or markedly reduced in these bronchiectatic patients.