2004 Articles

APOE-Dependent Pet Patterns of Brain Activation in Alzheimer Disease

Scarmeas, Nikolaos; Anderson, Karen E.; Hilton, H. John; Park, Aileen; Habeck, Christian G.; Flynn, Joseph; Tycko, Benjamin; Stern, Yaakov

Using H215O PET, the authors imaged 13 patients with Alzheimer disease (AD) while performing a serial nonverbal recognition memory task. Patterns of brain activation differed as a function of APOE genotype: {epsilon}4 carriers exhibited lower activation in the left lingual gyrus and higher activation in left cuneus, precuneus, parahippocampal, and right precentral gyrus. The APOE genotype seems to play a role in cerebral physiologic activity even after onset of clinical manifestations of AD.