COMPUTERIZED MEASUREMENT OF CILIARY BEAT FREQUENCY

We describe how ciliary beat frequency (CBF) of human respiratory epit helium in vitro can be robustly and quickly measured. The proven photo metric technique has been improved by using a microcomputer to calcula te and display the results. The software, which runs on an IBM-compati ble PC, was developed using Borland Turbo Pascal and employs a fast Fo urier transform routine to derive the CBF. Results are displayed almos t as soon as a cell is identified under the microscope, and are in acc ordance with previous work. The technique can now be used diagnostical ly and for a variety Of drug trials on respiratory epithelium.