Primary ciliary dyskinesia

BEAT-PCD (Better Experimental Approaches to Treat Primary Ciliary Dyskinesia)

BEAT-PCD is a clinical research collaboration which is a network of people aiming to advance research into PCD to improve diagnosis and patient care. Their aim is:

• To encourage clinical trials that evaluate treatments and improve the way those trials are designed.
• To analyse existing data to answer questions on PCD disease course and factors that influence it, taking into account research priorities identified by both experts and patients.
• To facilitate the collection of data in clinical routine care to improve research and use all routinely collected data.
• To promote the development of patient care standards to be followed in every centre.
• To create a website of all the different gene mutations involved (there are more than 1,000) and provide advice on diagnosis, exchanging expertise between countries so that PCD can be diagnosed even in places where diagnostic facilities are not yet developed.
• To create resources for physicians, patients and the public to learn about PCD and increase awareness.
• To work closely with other collaborative networks in the field of PCD and other respiratory diseases internationally, building on the advances and experiences of recent years.

Patient input

BEAT-PCD wants to involve patients in all their research activities and encourage communication between patient organisations from different countries. Examples of things patient representatives will be asked to do include:

• giving advice on the design of research studies;
• giving an opinion on priority areas of research;
• supporting the development of surveys and information for patients; and
• contributing to material produced to ensure it makes sense to patients and the public.

We have formed a PCD patient advisory group (PAG) made up of people with PCD, suspected PCD or people who have family members with PCD to join and advise this new European initiative.

We want to encourage people from all across Europe to get involved. If you are interested in joining with other patients and healthcare professionals in the BEAT-PCD network, please contact Jeanette Boyd at jeanette.boyd@europeanlung.org

COVID-19 infections in people with PCD

BEAT-PCD has launched a research project to learn more about the impact of COVID-19 in people with PCD. It involves PCD patients with COVID-19 completing a series of questionnaires to monitor the progression of symptoms.

Find out more and register for the COVID-19 survey.

European Respiratory Society guidelines for the diagnosis of primary ciliary dyskinesia was published in European Respiratory Journal in 2016. A patient survey was developed in collaboration with Task force members and ELF. People affected by the condition were invited to share their experiences via an online survey. The survey research was published in the European Respiratory Journal in October 2016. A presentation on the patients’ feedback was given at ERS Congress 2015.