Study: Women with mild memory problem worsen faster than men

[...] Duke University researchers compared nearly 400 men and women with mild cognitive impairment, early memory changes that don't interfere with everyday activities but that mark an increased risk for developing Alzheimer's.

Age, education levels and even whether people carried the ApoE-4 gene that increases the risk of late-in-life Alzheimer's couldn't account for the difference, said Duke medical student Katherine Lin, who coauthored the study with Duke psychiatry professor Dr. P. Murali Doraiswamy.

—A sample of 1,000 participants in the large Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative compared PET scans to see how much of a sticky protein called beta-amyloid was building up in the brains of a variety of men and women, some healthy, some at risk and others with full-blown Alzheimer's.

Amyloid plaques are a hallmark of Alzheimer's, and growing levels can help indicate who's at risk before symptoms ever appear.

Together, the studies show how much more research is needed into gender differences that may increase the risk of Alzheimer's, said Dr. Kristine Yaffe of UCSF, who wasn't involved in Tuesday's studies but was part of a recent Alzheimer's Association meeting to start determining those next steps.