APO-E-ALLELE FREQUENCIES IN ALZHEIMERS-DISEASE, LEWY BODY DEMENTIA, ALZHEIMERS-DISEASE WITH CEREBROVASCULAR-DISEASE AND VASCULAR DEMENTIA

APOLIPOPROTEIN (APo E) was genotyped using a fluorescent PCR-RFLP assa y in 187 patients with a probable or possible clinical diagnosis of sp oradic Alzheimer's disease (AD) and in 166 autopsied patients with dem entia (21 presenile AD, 70 senile AD, 18 Lewy body dementia (LBD), 38 AD with cerebrovascular disease (AD-CVD), 19 vascular dementia). The r elative epsilon 4 allele frequency was 0.472 in LBD, 0.513 in AD-CVD, 0.405 in presenile AD, 0.364 in senile AD, and 0.079 in vascular demen tia. The relative epsilon 2 allele frequency was 0.211 in vascular dem entia, 0.083 in LBD, 0.047 in presenile AD, 0.100 in senile AD and 0.0 39 in AD with CVD. We infer that apo E is a major risk factor for stru ctural phenotypes of dementia involving AD, alone or in conjunction wi th another pathology. In addition, the epsilon 2 allele is likely to r epresent a risk factor for vascular morbidity, as the relative epsilon 2 allele frequency was 0.211 in patients with vascular dementia compa red with 0.144 in elderly controls.