title: Presentation of primary ciliary dyskinesia in children: 30 years' experience.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Primary ciliary dyskinesia (PCD) is a rare (1:15,000) condition resulting in recurrent suppurative respiratory tract infections, progressive lung damage and hearing impairment. As the diagnosis is often delayed for years, the purpose of this study was to review the presenting features of children with PCD attending Australia's initial diagnostic PCD service over a 30-year period.
  
  
  METHODS
  A retrospective review of the symptoms of children diagnosed with PCD at Concord Hospital between 1982 and 2012 was undertaken.
  
  
  RESULTS
  One thousand thirty-seven paediatric patients were referred for assessment and underwent nasal ciliary brushing. Eighty-four (8.1%) had PCD based on microscopic analysis of nasal cilia. This included 81 with ciliary ultrastructural abnormalities demonstrated on electron microscopy and 3 with a suggestive phenotype, reduced ciliary beat frequency and a family history of PCD. The median age at diagnosis was 6.4 years (range 0.1 to 18.2 years). Forty-six per cent had situs abnormalities and 31% had a family member with PCD. Recurrent cough (81%), rhinosinusitis (71%), recurrent otitis media (49%) and neonatal respiratory distress (57%) were reported. Bronchiectasis at presentation was documented in 32%. Situs abnormalities and neonatal respiratory distress were present together in 26%.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  PCD remains under-recognised by health-care workers. The combination of neonatal respiratory distress, chronic suppurative cough and rhinosinusitis was the most common documented symptom cluster at presentation in cases of PCD. A heightened awareness of the clinical features of the disease may help to lower the age at diagnosis, facilitate appropriate treatment and improve long-term outcomes.
authors.affiliation: Discipline of Paediatrics, School of Women's and Children's Health, University of New South Wales, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
authors.forename: Patrick H
authors.initials: PH
authors.lastname: Hosie
authors.affiliation: Department of Respiratory Medicine, The Children's Hospital at Westmead, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.|Discipline of Paediatrics and Child Health, Sydney Medical School, University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
authors.forename: Dominic A
authors.initials: DA
authors.lastname: Fitzgerald
authors.affiliation: Discipline of Paediatrics and Child Health, University of New South Wales, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.|Department of Respiratory Medicine, Sydney Children's Hospital, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
authors.forename: Adam
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Jaffe
authors.affiliation: Department of ENT Surgery, The Children's Hospital at Westmead, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.|Discipline of Paediatrics and Child Health, Sydney Medical School, University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.|Australian School of Advanced Medicine, Macquarie University, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
authors.forename: Catherine S
authors.initials: CS
authors.lastname: Birman
authors.affiliation: Discipline of Adult Medicine, Sydney Medical School, University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.|Department of Thoracic Medicine, Concord Hospital, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
authors.forename: Jonathan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Rutland
authors.affiliation: Discipline of Adult Medicine, Sydney Medical School, University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.|Department of Thoracic Medicine, Concord Hospital, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
authors.forename: Lucy C
authors.initials: LC
authors.lastname: Morgan
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D057210:Delayed Diagnosis; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D007619:Kartagener Syndrome / Q000175:diagnosis*; D008297:Male; D009517:New South Wales; D012189:Retrospective Studies
keywords: Australia; Kartagener syndrome; airway cilia; awareness; ciliary motility disorder; primary ciliary dyskinesia