Senile dementia of the Lewy body type has an apolipoprotein E epsilon 4 allele frequency intermediate between controls and Alzheimer's disease.
We have examined the apolipoprotein E (ApoE) allele distributions in Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, senile dementia of the Lewy body type and neurologically normal controls. We have confirmed the strong genetic association between the epsilon 4 allele and Alzheimer's disease, shown that there is no association between the epsilon 4 allele and Parkinson's disease and shown that senile dementia of the Lewy body type has an epsilon 4 allele distribution intermediate between Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease. On this basis, we suggest that senile dementia of the Lewy body type represents the co-occurrence of two syndromes.
Hardy
J
J
Department of Psychiatry, University of South Florida, Tampa 33613.
Crook
R
R
Prihar
G
G
Roberts
G
G
Raghavan
R
R
Perry
R
R
D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000483:Alleles; D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000235:genetics*; D001057:Apolipoproteins E / Q000235:genetics*; D006801:Humans; D010300:Parkinson Disease / Q000235:genetics*; D012016:Reference Values
D001057:Apolipoproteins E