Affiliations: The Presbyterian Hospital, Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center, 622 West 168th Street, New York, N.Y. 10032, U.S.A.
Note: [1] From the Department of Pediatrics (Drs. Lorin and Denning) and the School of Dental and Oral Surgery (Dr. Mandel), College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University and Babies Hospital, Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center, New York.
Note: [2] This study was supported by grants from the New York Metropolitan Regional Medical Program, Division of the Regional Medical Programs, U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare—Public Health Service and the National Cystic Fibrosis Research Foundation. Address request for reprints to Babies Hospital, 3975 Broadway, New York, 10032 (Dr. Lorin).
Abstract: Investigations of biochemical abnormalities of exocrine secretions in cystic fibrosis have failed to explain the plugging of organ passages so characteristic of this disease. The present study examined one of the physical properties of these secretions, namely, viscosity. A rotational viscometer was used to compare the viscosities of sweat, submaxillary saliva and duodenal fluid from patients with cystic fibrosis, with the same secretions from non-cystic patients with gastrointestinal symptoms and from normal subjects. Qualitatively, the viscometric characteristics of each secretion were found to be the same for the two groups. Sweat, both cystic and normal, behaved as a Newtonian fluid, with a constant viscosity at all rates of shear. Saliva, both cystic and normal, and duodenal fluid, cystic and noncystic, were all found to be pseudoplastic, with decreasing viscosity at increasing rates of shear. Quantitatively, a significant difference was present only for duodenal fluid, which was more viscous for the cystic fibrosis group.
DOI: 10.3233/BIR-1972-9103
Journal: Biorheology, vol. 9, no. 1, pp. 27-32, 1972
