A longitudinal quantitative EEG study of Alzheimer's disease: Relation to apolipoprotein E polymorphism

Apolipoprotein E (apoE) epsilon 4 allele is a risk factor for late-onset Al zheimer's disease (AD) and is proposed to have an impact on cholinergic fun ction in AD, Slowing of the EEG is characteristic in AD and the cholinergic system has an important role in modulating EEG, QEEG was recorded from 31 AD patients at the early stage of the disease and after a 3-year follow-up, AD patients were divided into subgroups according to the apoE epsilon 4 al lele (2 epsilon 4, 1 epsilon 4 and 0 epsilon 4), AD subgroups did not diffe r in clinical severity or duration of dementia, The AD patients carrying th e epsilon 4 allele had more pronounced slow-wave activity than AD patients without the epsilon 4 allele, although the progression rate did not change, The differences in EEG may suggest differences in the degree of the cholin ergic deficit in these subgroups. Copyright (C) 2000 S. Karger AG, Basel.