Consistent with previous reports, NSAID use reduced the risk of Alzheimer's disease, but not vascular dementia (dementia caused by restriction of blood flow to the brain, which starves the brain tissue of oxygen). On further analysis, however, the risk reduction was confined to APOE4 carriers.
"These findings should provide important clues for studies of the underlying biology of dementia and Alzheimer's disease," Dr. Joseph Rogers and Dr. Marwan N. Sabbagh, from the Sun Health Research Institute in Sun City, Arizona, comment in a related editorial.
Regardless of how APOE4 increases the risk of Alzheimer's disease, the results of the first study suggest that it is "independent of the cerebrovascular and other changes that make stroke a risk factor for dementia," while those of the second suggest that it is "ameliorated by NSAIDs," the editorialists note.
SOURCE: Neurology, January 1, 2008.
