What is Primary Ciliary Dykinesia (PCD)?
PCD stands for primary ciliary dyskinesia. The term PCD is used to describe inherited disorders of motile (moving) cilia, including including Kartagener syndrome, immotile cilia syndrome, and ciliary aplasia. The estimated incidence of inherited ciliary disorders ranges from 1:12,500 to 1:25,000. This means that roughly 15-20,000 Americans have PCD. Effective activity of motile cilia is required to keep the lungs, sinuses and ears free of organisms and debris that can cause disease. Motile cilia also are important in helping determine organ placement in the developing embryo and in moving the cells of reproduction into place (egg cells through the ciliated fallopian tube in females and flagellated sperm tails in the male). Motile cilia are also found in the ventricles of the brain. A person with PCD experiences chronic, recurrent infections in the lungs ears and sinuses due to the loss of ciliary activity in those areas. Faulty determination of organ placement (aka ‘situs’) may result
