Article Effect of Alzheimer’s Disease Risk Genes on Trajectories of Cognitive Function in the Cardiovascular Health Study

Objective: The trajectory of cognitive de-cline in patients with late-onset Alzheimer’s disease varies widely. Genetic variations in CLU, PICALM, and CR1 are associated with Alzheimer’s disease, but it is unknown whether they exert their effects by altering cognitive trajectory in elderly individuals at risk for the disease. Method: The authors developed a Bayes-ian model to fit cognitive trajectories in a cohort of elderly subjects and test for genetic effects. They first validated the model’s ability to detect the previously established effects of APOE ε4 alleles on age at cognitive decline and of psychosi