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Letter
Apolipoprotein E4 in the temporal variant of frontotemporal dementia
  1. S M Rosso1,
  2. J C van Swieten1,
  3. G Roks2,
  4. C M van Duijn2,
  5. P Heutink3,
  6. M Cruts4,
  7. C van Broeckhoven4
  1. 1Department of Neurology, Erasmus Medical Centre Rotterdam, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
  2. 2Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Erasmus Medical Centre Rotterdam
  3. 3Department of Clinical Genetics, Erasmus Medical Centre Rotterdam
  4. 4Department of Molecular Genetics, Flanders Interuniversity Institute for Biotechnology (VIB), University of Antwerp (UIA), Antwerp, Belgium
  1. Correspondence to:
 Dr J C van Swieten, Department of Neurology, University Hospital Rotterdam, Dijkzigt, Dr Molewaterplein 40, 3015 GD Rotterdam, The Netherlands;
 vanswieten{at}neur.azr.nl

https://doi.org/10.1136/jnnp.72.6.820

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    Although the apolipoprotein E4 (apoE4) allele has consistently been associated with Alzheimer's disease and other types of dementia in many studies,1 its association with frontotemporal dementia (FTD) is controversial. After our report in 1997 of increased apoE4 allele frequencies in sporadic FTD and its effect on the age at onset,2 other studies of cases of FTD with pathological confirmation or tau mutations did not confirm this effect.3–5 However, recently it has been shown that semantic dementia, the temporal variant of FTD, may be associated with higher frequencies of the apoE4 allele.6 Therefore, we have genotyped apoE in our expanded FTD patient population and have assessed whether patients with predominance of temporal atrophy have higher frequencies of the apoE4 allele.

    Patients were ascertained through a clinicoepidemiological survey of patients with FTD in The Netherlands.2 We identified 111 patients with the …

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