Open Access
CC BY 4.0 · Arq Neuropsiquiatr 2025; 83(03): s00451807714
DOI: 10.1055/s-0045-1807714
Review Article

Practical recommendations for diagnosis, management, and follow-up of Niemann-Pick type-C disease patients: a Brazilian perspective

1   Fundação Oswaldo Cruz, Instituto Nacional de Saúde da Mulher, da Criança e do Adolescente Fernandes Figueira, Departamento de Genética Médica, Rio de Janeiro RJ, Brazil.
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2   Hospital Infantil Albert Sabin, Serviço de Neurologia e Neurogenética, Fortaleza CE, Brazil.
3   Universidade Federal do Ceará, Faculdade de Medicina, Fortaleza CE, Brazil.
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4   Universidade Estadual de de Campinas, Faculdade de Ciências Médicas, Departamento de Neurologia, Campinas SP, Brazil.
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5   Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Departamento de Genética Médica, Porto Alegre RS, Brazil.
6   Dasa Genômica, Porto Alegre RS, Brazil.
7   Casa dos Raros, Centro de Atenção Integral e Treinamento em Doenças Raras, Porto Alegre RS, Brazil.
8   Hospital de Clínicas de Porto Alegre, Serviço de Genética Médica, Porto Alegre RS, Brazil.
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8   Hospital de Clínicas de Porto Alegre, Serviço de Genética Médica, Porto Alegre RS, Brazil.
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9   Universidade do Estado da Bahia, Departamento de Ciências da Vida, Salvador BA, Brazil.
10   Hospital Universitário Professor Edgard Santos, Serviço de Genética Médica, Salvador BA, Brazil.
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3   Universidade Federal do Ceará, Faculdade de Medicina, Fortaleza CE, Brazil.
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11   Faculdade de Medicina de São José do Rio Preto, Centro de Referência de Doenças Raras, Unidade de Neurogenética, Clínica de Erros Inatos do Metabolismo, São José do Rio Preto SP, Brazil.
› Author Affiliations

Funding The authors declare that present work was funded by Janssen-Cilag Farmacêutica.
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Abstract

Niemann-Pick type-C (NPC) disease is a rare genetic condition with a clinical spectrum ranging from a fatal prenatally-presenting and quickly lethal disorder to an adult-onset chronic neurodegenerative condition. Given the scarcity of information regarding NPC disease in Brazil, a group of experts decided to discuss some disease-related aspects at the national level. The present manuscript describes the results of a Brazilian consensus meeting conducted to propose recommendations for the diagnosis, management, and follow-up of NPC disease in Brazil, considering the clinical practice point of view. These recommendations include patient characteristics on clinical presentation, as systemic and neurological manifestations according to the age group and atypical manifestations; a flowchart for diagnostic confirmation, considering the Brazilian scenario; and treatment, encompassing disease-modifying therapy, supportive care, and patients' follow-up. The expert panel provided an objective basis of recommendations on NPC diagnosis and management in Brazil. The authors expect that this manuscript will help clinicians to identify, adequately treat and follow-up NPC patients in Brazil.

Authors' Contributions

Conceptualization, methodology, writing - original draft, and writing - review & editing: DDGH, AP, MCFJ, RG, CFMS, EKE, PBN, CML. All authors contributed equally to this work and have reviewed and approved the final version of the manuscript.


Data Availability Statement

Data sharing is not applicable to the present article as no new data was created or analyzed in this study.


Editor-in-Chief: Hélio A. G. Teive.


Associate Editor: Laura Silveira-Moriyama.




Publication History

Received: 29 January 2024

Accepted: 23 November 2024

Article published online:
09 May 2025

© 2025. The Author(s). This is an open access article published by Thieme under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, permitting copying and reproduction so long as the original work is given appropriate credit (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

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Bibliographical Record
Dafne Dain Gandelman Horovitz, André Pessoa, Marcondes Cavalcante França Junior, Roberto Giugliani, Carolina Fischinger Moura de Souza, Emília Katiane Embiruçu, Pedro Braga-Neto, Charles Marques Lourenço. Practical recommendations for diagnosis, management, and follow-up of Niemann-Pick type-C disease patients: a Brazilian perspective. Arq Neuropsiquiatr 2025; 83: s00451807714.
DOI: 10.1055/s-0045-1807714