Ciliary changes with abscence of dynein arms in Kartagener's syndrome
A 33 years-old female with a diagnosis of Kartagener's syndrome was studied. She had a clinical history of chronic sinusitis with nasal obstruction and rhinorrea, and a chronic cough with mucopurulent sputum. A paranasal sinus CT showed hypertrophyc mucosa. A thoracic CT showed a situs inversus and chronic bronchitis with bronchiectasis. The saccharin test lasted 55 minutes. The electron microscopy study showed in a a cross-sectional axoneme a total absence of the outer and inner arm of the 9th outer doublet in over a 100 cilias studied. No others ultrastructure anormalities were observed.