Abstract
Attention is drawn to the difficulties of estimating the viscoelasticity of organic liquid as bronchial secretion. Neither the capillary viscometer nor the cone-plate viscometer is suitable for this purpose. A new type of viscometer is described which conforms to the requirements of mucus. The instrument operates on the principle of a torsion bar. Use of this instrument showed that the viscoelasticity of bronchial secretion, obtained from the tracheotomies of laryngectomized patients, show great fluctuations in the course of each day. Thus, viscoelasticity measurements made once a day to estimate the effect of a therapeutic procedure, especially if sputum is used, possess no significant value. Only a comparison of day curves will give useful information.
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