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Start free with EleplanSemantic dementia
ORPHA:100069Disease
Also called Semantic primary progressive aphasia · Semantic variant PPA
What it is
Semantic dementia (SD) is a form of frontotemporal dementia (FTD), characterized by the progressive, amodal and profound loss of semantic knowledge (combination of visual associative agnosia, anomia, surface dyslexia or dysgraphia and disrupted comprehension of word meaning) and behavioral abnormalities, attributable to the degeneration of the anterior temporal lobes.
Key facts
- Prevalence
- <1 / 1 000 000
- Age of onset
- Adult
- Inheritance
- Multigenic/multifactorial, Not applicable
- 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
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.
Genes
ICD-10 codes
ICD-10 has no distinct code for most rare diseases, so many are filed under the nearest available one. A shared code identifies the group, not this disease — the ORPHAcode above is what identifies it.
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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