Air pollution and nasal mucociliary clearance time among urban and rural residents in two Philippine communities

Objective@#To measure the nasal mucociliary clearance (NMC) time among adults residing in two Philippine communities with different air quality indices using the saccharin and methylene blue test. @*Methods@#Design: Cross-Sectional Study. Setting: Diliman, Quezon City and Puerto Princesa, Palawan. Participantss: Fifty (50) participants, 25 residing in an urban city with fair air quality index and 25 residing in a rural province with good air quality index. @*Results@#The mean NMC time of the urban group was 22.15±12.68 mins and was significantly longer than the NMC time of the rural group which was 5.29±2.87mins; t(48) = 6.643, p<0.0001). @*Conclusion@#Increased air pollution may be associated with significant prolongation of nasal mucociliary clearance time among urban residents with fair quality air index compared to rural residents with good quality air index.

The Comparison Study of Mucociliary Clearance After Nasal Irrigation with Buffered Hypotonic, Isotonic, and Hypertonic Saline Solutions / 대한이비인후과학회지

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Nasal or sinus irrigation is the traditional treatment for chronic paranasal sinusitis and is the one of the most important postoperative care for those who have undergone functional endoscopic sinus surgery (FESS). However the bases of any scientific evidence to determine efficacy of different concentrations of saline are lacking. The objective of this clinical study was to determine if nasal mucociliary clearance (NMC) in vivo was improved significantly by the use of differently concentrated buffered saline nasal irrigations. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The acute effect of NMC was measured using saccharin test in 20 volunteers without any significant sinonasal disease on four separate days, involving single administration of each of the followings: 1) atomized 0.65% saline; 2) atomized 0.9% saline; 3) atomized 3% saline; 4) atomized 7% saline. Normal subjects served as their own control using a saccharin test before any nasal irrigation was used, and then used one of four different concentrated saline solutions to irrigate their nose. Comparison of the change of NMC at different concentations was performed by using Wilcoxon signed rank test. RESULTS: When compared to each control, the buffered 3% hypertonic saline improved mucociliary transit time of saccharin (p<0.05), whereas other concentrations of buffered saline had no such effect. CONCLUSION: We concluded that this hypertonic saline should be useful as nasal irrigation solution on medical and postoperative care of chronic paranasal sinusitis.