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Start free with EleplanMarchiafava-Bignami disease
ORPHA:221074Disease
Also called MBD
What it is
A rare neurologic disease most prominently characterized by progressive demyelination and necrosis of the corpus callosum. It is in most cases associated with chronic alcoholism and malnutrition. Speed of onset and clinical presentation are very variable with a range of possible symptoms, including dementia, seizures, gait abnormalities, dysarthria, aphasia, athetosis, as well as stupor and coma.
Key facts
- Prevalence
- <1 / 1 000 000
- Age of onset
- Adult
- Classified as
- Disease
Prevalence figures describe populations, not individuals, and are often estimates from a single study. Where the figure is an incidence or a birth prevalence, it says so.
Signs and symptoms
Common30–79%
11Sometimes5–29%
34- Abnormal basal ganglia morphology
- Abnormality of vision
- Abnormal pyramidal sign
- Aggressive behavior
- Anomia
- Apathy
- Aphasia
- Apraxia
and 26 more in this range
These ranges are how often a sign appears across everyone diagnosed, not a prediction for one person — most people have some of these and not others. Orphanet also records findings that are specifically absent in this disease; those are in the data but not listed here.
ICD-10 codes
Related health topics
Reached through the ICD-10 categories this disease is filed under, so these describe the broader group rather than this disease specifically.
Cross-references
Orphadata Science: Free access data from Orphanet. © INSERM 1999. Data version 2026-06-23. Available under CC BY 4.0. This is a reference, not medical advice.
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