Unexpectedly normal cilia and spermatozoa in an infertile man with Kartagener's syndrome.

We investigated a 28-year-old, infertile male patient with the characteristic clinical signs of Kartagener's syndrome (i.e. bronchiectasis, recurrent sinusitis, situs inversus). The patient had tried unsuccessfully for 3 years to become a father, and no cause of infertility was detected in his wife. The functional capacities tested in vitro of nasal and tracheal ciliated cells, spermatozoa and neutrophils were found to be normal. The tracheo-bronchial clearance was not impaired. The ultrastructure of ciliary and flagellar axonemes was normal. This case of Kartagener's syndrome without axonemal abnormalities raises the questions of the factors responsible, on the one hand, for the patient's organ asymmetry and respiratory tract diseases and, on the other hand, for the couple's infertility.