Apolipoprotein E polymorphism in various dementias in Taiwan Chinese population

Summary. To verify the association between APOE4 frequency and various dementias in Taiwan Chinese individuals, APOE genotypes were determined in patients with dementia of Alzheimer's type (AD), vascular dementia (VD), dementias due to other general medical conditions (OD), and dementia of Alzheimer's type with cerebral vascular disease (mixed type dementia; MD). Only AD patients exhibited higher APOE4 frequency (OR = 2.95, p = 0.001) than controls after Bonferroni correction to control the overall type I error rate for the multiple testing. No such difference was observed among VD, OD, MD and control groups. The lack of association between VD and APOE4 allele frequency suggests that APOE4 allele does not associate with cerebrovascular pathology related dementia in Taiwan Chinese. Received December 3, 2001; accepted April 9, 2002 Published online July 26, 2002 Acknowledgement This work was supported by Taichung Veterans General Hospital grant TCVGH 894001B. Authors' address: L.-J. Chuo, MD, Department of Psychiatry, Taichung Veterans General Hospital, Taichung, Taiwan, e-mail: ljchuo@vghtc.vghtc.gov.tw