Korean J Biol Psychiatry.  2008 Feb;15(1):5-13.

An Association Between Apolipoprotein E epsilon4 and Cognitive Function in Community-Dwelling Elders with Questionable Dementia

• Moon SW
• Seo JS
• Nam BW
• Choi JY
• Lee CH
• Park KU
• Kim KW

Abstract

OBJECTIVES
It was the aim of the present paper to examine the impact of the apolipoprotein E(APOE) epsilon4 on cognitive performance in community-dwelling elderly samples with'questionable dementia'.
METHODS
Total 295 samples who were diagnosed with'questionable dementia'in the recent year and completed the Korean version of the Consortium Establish a Registry for Alzheimer's Disease(CERAD-K) neuropsychological assessment protocol, were recruited. The CDR test established score of 0.5. Genomic DNA was extracted from the venous blood and APOE genotyping was done in this group. Their cognitive performance was compared by the occurrence of the APOE epsilon4 allele.
RESULTS
The impact of epsilon4 allele was significant in the Word List Recall Test(WLRT, F=4.511, df=1, p=0.035). The'young-old' group aged 75 years and under had a significantly lower performance on the Word List Recall Test(WLRT, F=5.090, df=1, p=0.015), but the'old-old'group over 75 years of age had not significantly different performance on the all the item of tests in epsilon4+ allele group.
CONCLUSION
The conclusion to be drawn here is that community-dwelling elderly samples with epsilon4 allele in 'questionable dementia' had a significantly lower performance on the Word List Recall Test in the CERAD-K neuropsychological test batteries and the effect was prominent in the 'young-old' age group.

Keyword

CDR; Apolipoprotein E; CERAD-K; Neuropsychological test

MeSH Terms

Aged
Alleles
Apolipoproteins
Apolipoproteins E
Dementia
Deoxycytidine
DNA
Humans
Neuropsychological Tests
Apolipoproteins
Apolipoproteins E
DNA
Deoxycytidine