Summary
A 48-year-old man was examined because of anosmia. He was otherwise healthy except for mild arterial hypertension. He had stopped smoking 20 years ago. Previously he had been exposed to sulfuric acid gases for 3 years in his work. Clinical examination revealed no findings to explain his anosmia. The patient was fertile, indicating normal sperm/cilia motility. Nasal mucociliary function was examined by radioactive tracer and found to be markedly and constantly impaired. Ciliary ultrastructure in cross-sections was normal. However, in longitudinal sections the length of the cilia varied from 0.6 μm to 3.9 gm. The mean length of the cilia from the cell membrane to the tip was 2.5 ± 0.9 gm, in contrast to normal ciliary length of 5–7 μm. These findings represent a new structural defect among the various known ciliary abnormalities.
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Rautiainen, M., Nuutinen, J. & Collan, Y. Short nasal respiratory cilia and impaired mucociliary function. Eur Arch Otorhinolaryngol 248, 271–274 (1991). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00176753
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00176753