. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2010 Feb 27.

Published in final edited form as: Adv Drug Deliv Rev. 2008 Dec 13;61(2):158–171. doi: 10.1016/j.addr.2008.11.002

Table 2.

Clearance time and rate for various types of normal human mucus.

Type of Mucus	Clearance Time (min)	Clearance Rate (mm/min)	Ref.
Respiratory
General	10–20	^*	[32]
Maxillary Sinus	20–30	^*	[32]
Nasal	8.8	^*	[213]
	^*	5–11	[80]
	20	5	[79, 214, 215]
Tracheal	^*	4.1±1.9	[216]
	^*	4.7 (range: 3.5–6)	[216–222]
	^*	15.5 (range: 4.5–30)^#	[223–230]
Bronchial	^*	2.4±0.5	[217]
Small Airways	^*	1	[231]
Ocular	5–7.7	^*	[56]

Not determined.

Clearance rates were measured using a bronchoscopic or roentgenographic method, which generally results in higher measured rates of clearance, most likely due to the invasiveness of the procedures [229, 230].