Abstract
Objective:The effect of the apolipoprotein &egr;4 allele (ApoE &egr;4) on cognitive performance in patients with probable Alzheimer disease (AD) has been studied in primarily Caucasian samples. The aim of this exploratory study was to examine whether the presence of ApoE &egr;4 is associated with cognitive performance in African American AD patients.Methods:A cross-sectional, retrospective design was used to address the study objective. Data were extracted from the records of 65 African American patients who participated in the National Institutes of Health-National Institute on Aging (NIH-NIA) Emory University Alzheimer Disease Center Registry. Inclusion criteria were a clinical diagnosis of probable AD, cognitive testing using the Mattis Dementia Rating Scale and the Consortium to Establish a Registry for Alzheimer Disease (CERAD) neuropsychological battery, and ApoE genotyping.Results:Seventy percent of the patients were ApoE &egr;4 positive. Multiple regression analyses indicated that ApoE &egr;4 was significantly associated with poorer design copying (CERAD Constructional Praxis subtest), but other significant relationships were not observed between positive &egr;4 status and cognitive performance.Conclusions:These preliminary findings suggest that the ApoE &egr;4 allele is not strongly associated with a particular pattern of cognitive functioning in African Americans once they are diagnosed with AD. However, these findings require replication in a large prospectively recruited and population-based sample of African American AD patients before firm conclusions can be reached.
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References
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