Alzheimer's Disease Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Alzheimer's Disease, including details on diagnosis, memory loss, heredity, treatment, medication.

Cerebral glucose metabolism in patients with AD and different APOE genotypes.

Drzezga A, Riemenschneider M, Strassner B, Grimmer T, Peller M, Knoll A, Wagenpfeil S, Minoshima S, Schwaiger M, Kurz A

Department of Nuclear Medicine, Technische Universität München, Munich, Germany. a.drzezga@lrz.tu-muenchen.de

OBJECTIVE: To examine the influence of the APOE epsilon4 allele on cerebral glucose metabolism in a large series of patients with Alzheimer disease (AD). METHODS: Eighty-three patients (41 APOE epsilon4 positive and 42 epsilon4 negative) were selected from a pre-existing databank of patients with AD (n > 1,000). The patients were carefully matched for age, age at onset, approximate disease duration, educational level, and overall degree of cognitive impairment. Cerebral [18F]fluorodeoxyglucose PET imaging was performed in all patients by a standardized protocol. Statistical comparison of patient PET data vs a healthy control population was performed as well as an analysis of differences between groups (SPM99; Wellcome Department of Cognitive Imaging, London, UK). RESULTS: A similar pattern of cerebral hypometabolism was detected in the epsilon4-positive and -negative patient groups vs healthy volunteers in regions typically affected by AD (bilateral temporal, parietal, posterior cingulate, and prefrontal cortical areas). The comparison between epsilon4-positive and -negative patients additionally revealed stronger abnormalities in epsilon4 carriers in parietal, temporal, and posterior cingulate cortical regions. CONCLUSIONS: A generally similar pattern of cerebral hypometabolism was detected in APOE epsilon4-positive and -negative patients with Alzheimer disease. However, in direct comparison of the two matched groups, the abnormalities in the epsilon4-positive group were demonstrated to be more pronounced.

Published 11 January 2005 in Neurology, 64(1): 102-7.
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