ABSTRACT
The authors present a historical review of spinocerebellar ataxia type 3/Machado-Joseph disease (SCA3/MJD), the most common form of spinocerebellar ataxia in Brazil, and consider the high frequency of cases in families from Itajaí, a city on the coast of the state of Santa Catarina with a large population of Portuguese/Azorean descent.
spinocerebellar ataxias; Machado-Joseph disease