title: Is mucociliary transport velocity related to symptoms in chronic rhinosinusitis patients?
abstract: Mucociliary transport velocity (MTV) measured by rhinoscintigraphy is considered a reliable measure of mucociliary clearance, one of the mechanisms that are distorted in chronic rhinosinusitis (CRS). The aim of this study was to investigate possible correlation of MTV with the severity of patients' symptoms. We have studied thirty-seven CRS patients who completed the 20-item sinonasal outcome test (SNOT-20) form, a reliable measure of health related quality of life and were also examined by rhinoscintigraphy with technetium-99m macroaggregated albumin. Our findings showed that the MTV of our patients ranged from nil to 4.17mm/min with a mean value of 1.74+/-1.055 mm/min. The SNOT-20 scores varied from 0.3 to 3.7 with a mean of 1.6+/-0.922. The correlation between SNOT-20 score and MTV was not statistically significant (Spearman's r=-0.191). In conclusion, although rhinoscintigraphy is widely accepted as a reliable test of mucociliary velocity and clearance, it did not correlate with subjective measures of the severity of CRS.
authors.affiliation: Department of Otolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery, Agia Sophia Children's Hospital, Athens, Greece. athanasopoulosj@hotmail.com
authors.forename: Ioannis
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Athanasopoulos
authors.forename: Stefanos
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Naxakis
authors.forename: Ioannis M
authors.initials: IM
authors.lastname: Vlastos
authors.forename: Nicholas S
authors.initials: NS
authors.lastname: Mastronikolis
authors.forename: Costas
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Giannakenas
authors.forename: Pavlos
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Vassilakos
authors.forename: Panos
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Goumas
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D002908:Chronic Disease; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007090:Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009079:Mucociliary Clearance; D009093:Mucus / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D011877:Radionuclide Imaging; D019275:Radiopharmaceuticals; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012220:Rhinitis / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D012709:Serum Albumin; D012852:Sinusitis / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D013223:Statistics as Topic; D013668:Technetium Tc 99m Aggregated Albumin; D017971:Tin Compounds
chemical_list: D019275:Radiopharmaceuticals; D012709:Serum Albumin; D013668:Technetium Tc 99m Aggregated Albumin; D017971:Tin Compounds; C038216:technetium Tc 99m-Sn aggregated albumin