D. Geschwind et al., THE APOLIPOPROTEIN-E EPSILON-4 ALLELE IS NOT A SIGNIFICANT RISK FACTOR FOR FRONTOTEMPORAL DEMENTIA, Annals of neurology, 44(1), 1998, pp. 134-138
Frontotemporal dementia (FTD) is the most common early-onset non-Alzhe
imer's dementia (non-AD). Although the role of the epsilon 4 allele of
apolipoprotein E (ApoE) has been well established in AD, studies of A
poE allele distribution in patients with FTD have produced variable re
sults. We studied 33 rigorously diagnosed FTD patients, including seve
ral who were pathologically confirmed, and compared the frequency of t
he epsilon 4 allele in patients with FTD with the frequency in those w
ith early-onset AD (EOAD), in those with late-onset AD (LOAD), and in
non-demented elderly controls. The frequency of ApoE epsilon 4 was 21%
in patients with FTD, significantly less than the ApoE epsilon 4 freq
uency in those patients with EOAD (38%) and those with LOAD (40%), but
not significantly different from the ApoE epsilon 4 frequency in elde
rly controls (13%).