Goulding et al 1 carried out a preliminary retrospective postmortem analysis of 25 patients (13 men, 12 women, mean age 80.7 years) with the clinical diagnosis of Alzheimer-type dementia (only one with suspected multi-infarct dementia) and a 36.4% frequency of the ApoEε4 allele. Eighteen brains (89%) with neuritic Braak stage ⩽4 had either additional cerebrovascular lesions (n=14), or Lewy bodies (n=l), or both (n=6), with a significant inverse correlation between cerebrovascular lesions and Braak stage. Forty eight per cent of the brains showed small focal infarcts, and only 20% disclosed “pure” Alzheimer's disease pathology. No association between the ε4 allele and any pathological variable was found. Based on …