Dear Andrey,
Following Dr.Rauitiainen's comments let me add some limited
observations;
Assessment of the mucociliary clearance in the sinuses is an important
parameter, however routine clinical evaluation using antral puncture is
unacceptable. We thought that endoscopically-guided administration of
tagged material through the natural opening might be an alternative,
either by an inserted delicate catheter to the antrum, or by just
puffing the stuff at the opening. It soon became apparant that both ways
are technically very difficult, even in helthy subjects. One of the
requirements should be use of a small diameter yet very flexible
endoscope, to assist the location of the opening in the least traumatic
way. Such an endoscope (durable hence suitable for clinical
applications)is currently not available.
Another, hypothetical, alternative would be using a specific marker (for
mucus?)that can be injected systemically and followed up either by gamma
camera or with XR,CT, MRI, heat etc. I am not aware of any current
technology that might enable this.
The alternative is assessing the nasal clearance (saccharine?)and assume
it reflects the sinuses. The defficiencies of that approach are obvious,
raising the question if it should be applied at all, at current state of
the art.

Best wishes... Yehudah

Yehudah Roth, M.D.
The Institute for Nose and Sinus Therapy and Clinical Investigations
Dpt. of  OL - HNS
The Wolfson Medical Center, P.O. Box 5, 58222 Holon, ISRAEL


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