Is Early-Onset Alzheimer Disease a Distinct Subgroup Within the Alzheimer Disease Population?

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
Although patients with Alzheimer disease (AD) share major clinical and neurohistologic features regardless of age of onset, the hypothesis that early-onset AD comprises a distinct subgroup remains viable. Most studies addressing this hypothesis find quantitative differences between early- and late-onset AD patients. Early-onset AD is characterized by shorter survival, more rapid cognitive deterioration, greater frequency of language disturbance, more severe and widespread neurochemical abnormalities, and a greater density of neurohistologic lesions. In addition, both the chromosome 14 genetic abnormality and chromosome 21 amyloid precursor protein mutations appear restricted to early-onset familial AD. Age of onset of AD subjects may be relevant to the design of clinical trials. For example, the efficacy of a drug that slows disease progression may be more easily demonstrated in subjects with early-onset disease.

This publication has 0 references indexed in Scilit: