The Israeli National Consortium for Early Detection and Characterization of Primary Ciliary Dyskinesia

Primary Ciliary Dyskinesia (PCD) is a severe genetic disorder caused by various mutations in genes affecting ciliary motility. While diagnosis of PCD in Israel is currently based for the most part on electron microscopy (EM) detection of ciliary ultrastructural defects, this technique may be unsatisfactory and does not overcome the inherent heterogeneity. Thus, late and under-diagnosis and suboptimal characterization of patients is common. Various newer and complementary diagnostic techniques, including measurements of nasal nitric oxide (NO), Video Microscopy (VM), Immunoflourescence (IF) and genetic analysis have recently been recognized as simpler and more accurate modalities for the diagnosis and characterization of patients with PCD. While considered a rare disease worldwide, PCD is more prevalent among highly consanguineous populations, such as those found in Israel. Given the rarity of cases particularly familial ones, the most useful implementation of new diagnostic techniques requires multicenter collaboration.

We hypothesize that using modern state of the art and novel test modalities on a national scale in Israel will improve diagnosis, improve phenotypic-genotypic correlations and create a national registry for PCD.

We propose to perform such a multicenter study whose aims are:

• To characterize the complex phenotype and genotype of PCD in Israel, using state-of-the-art and novel diagnostic techniques.
• To create a national registry of patients and families with PCD in Israel
• To develop robust national standards of diagnosis and evaluation, which will lead to better and earlier diagnosis, treatment and counseling.