LUNG MECHANICS AND MUCOCILIARY CLEARANCE.

Basic studies of lung defense mechanisms have generally been parallel to and separate from those of pulmonary mechanics. In the normal human subject we are able to demonstrate a long lasting residual effect of serial coughs on the mucociliary apparatus. As in the obese subject, the patient groups with COPD and asthma, and the flow-limited dogs, the defect in clearance is regional and associated with the location of FLS. The experiments in dogs and normal humans show that FLS can directly affect clearance and support the hypothesis that chronic flow-limitation in disease is partially related to the observed clearance abnormalities in these groups even though they have different diseases.