[Study by radiolabelling of the residual time of a therapeutic gel in the nasal fossae].

The residence times in the nose of the liquid and gel forms of the same therapeutic preparation were compared in 7 healthy subjects. A 50 microliters drop of the preparation, labelled with Tc99m, was placed down the head of the inferior turbinate, and the kinetics of its clearance from the site of deposition was monotired using a gamma camera, during 60 minutes for the liquid and 120 minutes for the gel. The average times for removal of 50% of the labelled material from the site of deposition were 10.

Discussion on smoke and mucociliary transport.

While the acute cilio-inhibitory action of tobacco smoke is no longer to be proved, the relative importance of the various components involved in such an effect still remains a subject for discussion. We have tried to determine the relative part played by the main compounds of the gaseous and particulate phases taking into account, on the one hand, the dilution factor occurring in the smoker during inhalation, and, on the other hand, the reversibility of the phenomena. Moreover, we have tried to specify the effect of the ciliary inhibition on the mucus rate of transport.

[Prevention of gas microemboli during cardiac surgery. Numerical control of cardiac cavity purging by an ultrasonic detector].

Despite all precautions taken by cardiac surgeons to eliminate air remaining in the cardiac cavities and pulmonary veins at the end of cardiopulmonary bypass, many micro bubbles probably remain and pass into the systemic circulation with a risk of deteriorations of cerebral or myocardial function. Over the last four years we have used ultrasound to try to prevent the risk of preoperative gas microemboli: the machine is equipped with a detector (a quartz oscillator coupled to a piezoelectric transducer emitting a continuous beam of ultrasound at a frequency of 5 Mhz) which allows the following variables to be determined: the time interval from the onset of detection, the total quantity of bubbles (arbitrary units) in the examined regions, the quantity of bubbles detected over a given time interval which can be adjusted from 15 to 120 seconds. The passage of bubbles is also indicated by light and sound alarms.

[Current status of objective measurements of nasal airflow].

Objective quantitative measurements of nasal airway patency are badly known and used in clinical practice. However lot of difficulties may be overcame. The modern instruments have a good preciseness and the results are given with reproducibility.

[A way of evaluating the tolerance of respiratory mucosa to thermal spring water (author's transl)].

The therapeutical solutions for respiratory mucosa such as some thermal spring water must be perfectly tolerated and it is presently accepted that one of the best criteria of tolerance is the maintenance of a normal ciliary function. The photo-oscillographic techniques developed by the authors enabled the measurement of the physiological frequency of ciliary beat in vitro, and of the effect, either stimulant or inhibiting, of the thermal spring water. The measurement is done either in liquid phase by immersion of a fragment of ciliated mucosa, or in gas phase by aerosolization.