Corinna, I'm fairly new at this at well. I am concerned about my risk for developing Alzheimer's because my mom , 79 , has dementia. Asked her dr directly ,last week if she had Alzheimer's. Her dr said she didn't know. But her dr saw an immediate cognitive decline and was going to add new Alzheimer's drug , which is advertised on tv all the time , for moderate Alzheimer's. My moms brother died last year at 73 from Alzheimer's. I think APOE is a genetic marker. Please read Jeannebiggs post. It explains what APOE is.
Yes, my mom was tested for apoe3 to determine the class she would participate in on a medication for Alzheimer's Disease. The two classes for the research were those that tested positive and those that tested negative. Since she tested positive she did not qualify for the study because it was filled. They had all the subjects needed for the study. That study has since been abandoned and defunded as the double blind study was not effective in treatment of Alzheimer's Disease.
This is from an NIH article, updated in May of this year:
"Currently, APOE testing is used in research settings to identify study participants who may have an increased risk of developing Alzheimer's. This knowledge helps scientists look for early brain changes in participants and compare the effectiveness of treatments for people with different APOE profiles. Most researchers believe that APOE testing is useful for studying Alzheimer's disease risk in large groups of people but not for determining any one person's risk."
Hi jeannegibbs. I'm not sure either. I have been reading about it. I want to know how significantly children of Alzheimer's parents, risk rise ,to develop Alzheimer's
"Currently, APOE testing is used in research settings to identify study participants who may have an increased risk of developing Alzheimer's. This knowledge helps scientists look for early brain changes in participants and compare the effectiveness of treatments for people with different APOE profiles. Most researchers believe that APOE testing is useful for studying Alzheimer's disease risk in large groups of people but not for determining any one person's risk."
If this isn't one of the articles you've already read, you can find it here: https://www.nia.nih.gov/alzheimers/publication/alzheimers-disease-genetics-fact-sheet#alzheimers