Prenatal diagnosis of Niemann-Pick diseases types A, B and C

Prenatal diagnosis of Niemann-Pick disease types A and B is routinely accomplished by sphingomyelinase assay. For Niemann-Pick type C disease, demonstration of an abnormal intracellular cholesterol trafficking is a complex procedure, and mutational analysis (NPC1 or NPC2/HE1 gene), whenever feasible, represents a major advance.