APOE genotype in cerebrovascular disease and vascular dementia

Background: The fact that the allele epsilon4 of the Apolipoprotein E (APOE) gene could act like a risk factor not only in late-onset familial and sporadic Alzheimer's disease (AD) but also in cerebrovascular disease (CVD) and vascular dementia (VaD) is still controversial. Methods: In order to study if e4 allele is overrepresented not only in AD but also in CVD and VaD, APOE genotyping was undertaken in a series of 247 patients: 26 cases with VaD, 41 cases with CVD but without cognitive impairment (CVD-C), 83 cases with AD and 97 aged-matched "healthy controls" (HC). Results: Percentages of subjects bearing one or two copies of the e4 allele was much higher in AD patients (54%) than in either CVD-C (29%) (p<0.05), VaD (15%) (p<0.001) or HC (13%) (p<0.001). Conclusions: These results strengthen the hypothesis that involves the APOE epsilon4 allele as a predisposing factor for AD, but not for CVD or VaD. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.