Alzheimer's disease in the parents of women with trisomic spontaneous abortions

We tested whether familial aggregation of Down syndrome and Alzheimer's dis ease (AD) is present for trisomies of other autosomes. We compared rates of Alzheimer-like dementia in the parents of women with trisomic pregnancy lo sses (n = 109) with those in parents of women with chromosomally normal los ses(n = 151) and births (n = 216). Relative risks of Alzheimer-like dementi a in parents of women with trisomic losses were 1.2 (95% CI 0.6, 2.2) and 0 .9 (95% CI 0.5, 1.5) in comparison to parents of women with chromosomally n ormal losses and births, respectively. Associations were similar among wome n whose index pregnancy occurred before age 35 or later. Our data do not su pport an association between the occurrence of AD and trisomy of all autoso mal chromosomes. They raise the possibility that familial aggregation with AD is specific to trisomy 21. NeuroReport 11:795-799 (C) 2000 Lippincott Wi lliams & Wilkins.