Feinstruktur der Nasenschleimhaut bei Mukoviszidose unter besonderer Ber�cksichtigung der Polyposis

Abstract

Mucoviscidosis (cystic fibrosis) is a systemic disease of the exocrine glands which may be associated with abundant nasal secretion of abnormal viscosity and, in about 20% of the cases, with endonasal polyps. — For the electron microscopic study, mucosa was excised from the inferior turbinate of 12 mucoviscidosis-children with and without polyposis. The fine structure of surgically removed polyps was compared with that of allergic polyps in adults with-out mucoviscidosis. In mucoviscidosis, even the clinically and histologically often normal appearing nasal mucosa shows characteristic changes in the nasal glands with the electron microscope: Degeneration of the epithelium, accumulation of apparently abnormal secretion in the lumen of the glands, stimulation of the endoplasmatic reticulum as evidence of increased protein synthesis. The fine structural changes of the glands are particularly marked in endonasal polyps of mucoviscidosis-children; such polyps differ from allergic polyposis by their usual lack of eosinophilic infiltration.