What's primary ciliary dyskinesia?
Primary ciliary dyskinesia is a rare inherited disorder in which the tiny hair-like cilia that clear the airways do not move properly, so mucus and bacteria are not cleared from the respiratory tract.
| Features mapped | 6 |
|---|---|
| Treatments mapped | 1 |
| Published sources | 7 |
| Last reviewed | 2026-08-04 |
Signs and symptoms
Male infertility
Infertility is a common feature of primary ciliary dyskinesia.
Situs inversus totalis
In many people with primary ciliary dyskinesia the internal organs are mirror-reversed (situs inversus).
Recurrent otitis media
Recurrent middle-ear infections (otitis media) are common in primary ciliary dyskinesia.
Respiratory tract infection
Impaired clearance of mucus leads to recurrent infections of the upper and lower airways in primary ciliary dyskinesia.
Bronchiectasis
Bronchiectasis, permanent widening and scarring of the airways, is a core feature of primary ciliary dyskinesia.
Neonatal respiratory distress
Babies with primary ciliary dyskinesia often have breathing difficulty in the newborn period (neonatal respiratory distress).
Treatment and management
What the research describes, not a recommendation. Treatment decisions belong with your clinician.
This covers treatments that appear in the published research mapped here. Investigational and experimental therapies are not included, so their absence is a boundary of this map, not a sign they do not exist.
azithromycin
Long-term macrolide antibiotics such as azithromycin may reduce flare-ups in people with frequent bronchiectasis exacerbations.
Used to help with: Bronchiectasis.
“Individuals with 3 or more exacerbations of bronchiectasis annually may benefit from long-term inhaled antibiotics (eg, colistin, gentamicin) or daily oral macrolides (eg, azithromycin).”
How to read the evidence labels
Where this comes from
This guide is built from 7 published source(s). Every claim above links back to one of them. Click any source ID to read the original on PubMed.
Take it further
Printed, source-linked documents built from this condition's graph — ready to bring to an appointment or attach to a coverage request. Every claim carries its published source, the same as this guide.