THE CORRELATION BETWEEN CILIARY ULTRASTRUCTURE AND CILIARY BEAT FREQUENCY IN EXPERIMENTAL CHRONIC SINUSITIS

Ciliary ultrastructural abnormalities secondary to chronic sinusitis m ay cause abnormal mucociliary transport clearance. We examined the rel ationship between anatomic abnormalities of ciliary ultrastructure sec ondary to chronic sinusitis and ciliary beat frequency (CBF) before an d after middle meatal antrostomy (MMA) in rabbits. Ultrastructural abn ormalities of cilia included absence of axoneme membrane, blebs of the axoneme membrane, compound cilia, and ciliary orientation. Two groups of rabbits were studied: Uninfected (group A control, n = 3) and infe cted (group B, n = 10); 10(8) CFU S. pneumoniae were used to infect th e animals in group B after sinus ostial occlusion and chronic sinusiti s developed. After 6 weeks with infection, 6 of 10 group B animals und erwent MMA and were restudied 6 weeks later. Uninfected animals had me an CBF = 11.75 Hz. Animals with chronic sinusitis had mean CBF = 8.5 H z (p < 0.05). Six weeks after MMA, mean CBF = 11.82 Hz. This was not d ifferent from control: There were significant changes in ciliary ultra structure when uninfected and infected rabbits were compared. These ch anges were reversed with MMA. Changes in ciliary ultrastructure correl ated significantly with changes in CBF for all animals. Abnormalities in ciliary ultrastructure may account for the abnormal mucociliary tra nsport clearance seen in chronic sinusitis in rabbits.