APOLIPOPROTEIN-E GENOTYPE AND ALZHEIMERS-DISEASE IN HONG-KONG ELDERLYCHINESE

We studied the apolipoprotein E (apoE) allele frequencies in 65 Chines e patients with late-onset Alzheimer's disease (AD) and 82 age- and se x-matched controls. The apoE epsilon 4 allele frequency was significan tly higher in the AD group than in the control group (0.169 versus 0.0 67, p < 0.01). There were five homozygotes for epsilon 4 in the AD gro up but none among the controls. The odds ratio for AD was 1.6 for epsi lon 4 heterozygotes. The age at onset was lower with the presence of t he epsilon 4 allele and higher with the epsilon 2 allele, although nei ther of these differences reached statistical significance. The associ ation between apoE alleles and AD previously reported in Caucasian pop ulations was also present in this first reported study in Chinese. How ever, the lower epsilon 4 frequency in the Chinese population is compa tible with previous reports of lower prevalence of AD compared with th e prevalence of multi-infarct dementia.