Genetic risk factors in senile dementia

Alzheimer's disease (AD) and vascular dementia (VD) are two major dementing disorders in Japan. It has been well established that apolipoprotein E4 (ApoE4) increases the incidence of AD and lower the onset of AD in a dose-dependent manner. ApoE genotyping should not be used alone in the diagnosis of AD due to its limited sensitivity to detect AD. In VD, at the present time, no genetic risk factors that are directly linked to VD have been established. However, methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase gene polymorphism may be a candidate conferring a risk to develop vascular diseases.