Affiliation:
1. Saint Louis University School of Medicine, Department of Pediatrics at Cardinal Glennon Children’s Hospital, and Saint Louis University Department of Mathematics, Saint Louis, Missouri 63104
Abstract
Albers, G. M., R. P. Tomkiewicz, M. K. May, O. E. Ramirez, and B. K. Rubin. Ring distraction technique for measuring surface tension of sputum: relationship to sputum clearability. J. Appl. Physiol. 81(6): 2690–2695, 1996.—Poor sputum clearance has been related to sputum adhesion tension. In this study, we describe a modified du Noüy ring method for measuring the surface tension (γ) of small samples of sputum and for comparinge the calculated work of adhesion (Wad) for sputum specimens with the measured mucociliary transportability (MCTR) and cough transportability (CTR). The γ, as measured by this method, correlates with γ measured by sputum contact angle on a low-surface-energy solid ( R 2= 0.368, P = 0.03). There is a small but significant difference in measurements made by these two methods ( P = 0.03). Wad calculated from the surface tension ring method is inversely correlated with CTR ( R 2= 0.181, P = 0.004) but has no correlation with MCTR in this study. The miniaturized ring method gives accurate and reproducible measurements of the surface tension of small amounts of respiratory secretions. Because sputum behaves enough like a liquid that the assumptions made in using the Young equation to calculate Wad appear valid, we also showed that the Neumann equation can be used to determine the surface tension of sputum by its contact angle on tetrafluoroethylene (Teflon).
Publisher
American Physiological Society
Subject
Physiology (medical),Physiology
Cited by
53 articles.
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