title: Aerosol Medications for Treatment of Mucus Clearance Disorders.
abstract: Airway mucus hypersecretion and secretion retention can result from inflammation, irritation, stimulation, or mucus-producing tumors. Secretion clearance can be furthered hampered by ciliary dysfunction and by weakness or restrictive lung disease, leading to an ineffective cough. There are a number of different mucoactive medications that have been used to reduce hypersecretion, make secretions easier to transport, or increase the efficiency of cough or mucus clearance. In this paper, I review the pathophysiology of secretory hyper-responsiveness and mucus hypersecretion and discuss the different aerosol medications that can be used to augment secretion clearance.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine, and the Children's Hospital of Richmond at Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, Virginia. brubin@vcu.edu.
authors.forename: Bruce K
authors.initials: BK
authors.lastname: Rubin
mesh_terms: D000280:Administration, Inhalation; D000336:Aerosols; D003371:Cough; D005100:Expectorants / Q000008:administration & dosage*; D006801:Humans; D008171:Lung Diseases / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000503:physiopathology; D009079:Mucociliary Clearance / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000502:physiology; D009093:Mucus / Q000187:drug effects / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D000336:Aerosols; D005100:Expectorants
keywords: acetylcysteine; bicarbonate; cystic fibrosis; dornase alfa; expectorants; mucolytics; mucus; sputum