IN AN EPIDEMIOLOGIC SAMPLE THE APOLIPOPROTEIN E4 ALLELE IS ASSOCIATEDTO DEMENTIA AND LOSS OF MEMORY FUNCTION ONLY IN THE VERY OLD

The apolipoprotein E4 allele has been reported to be associated with l ate onset Alzheimer's disease. Here we report the relation of several neuropsychological test parameters and the diagnosis of dementia to th e apolipoprotein E polymorphism in an epidemiological sample of 477 su bjects aged 70-103 years. The apolipoprotein E4 allele was found to be associated with reduced performance in several sensitive neuropsychol ogical memory tests and with diagnosis of dementia only in the oldest subjects (>84 years). The association with dementia in this population based sample was much weaker than previously described and became onl y significant in a logistic regression analysis when age was included in the model. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd.