Apolipoprotein E polymorphism in various dementias in Taiwan Chinese population

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.