Texas Effort To Examine Alzheimer's Disease Among Hispanics

Main Category: Alzheimer's / Dementia
Article Date: 01 May 2009 - 3:00 PST

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The Texas Alzheimer's Research Consortium on Wednesday announced a new effort that seeks to study Alzheimer's disease among Hispanics, the AP/Dallas Morning News reports. "Hispanics are underrepresented nationally in Alzheimer's research, [and] we have an opportunity in Texas to lead the country in this work," Rachelle Doody, a neurology professor at Baylor College of Medicine, said.

Baylor College of Medicine, the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center, the University of North Texas Health Science Center, the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center and University of Texas-San Antonio Health Science Center are members of the consortium.

The group has created a "bio-bank" of blood tissue data for future research and clinical, psychological and lab data on 800 research participants, according to the Morning News. The new project will recruit volunteers from an ongoing heart and aging study in San Antonio.

Researchers have historical data on that group's diabetes and cardiovascular risks, Donald Royall, chief of aging and geriatric psychiatry at University of Texas-San Antonio Health Science Center, said. According to researchers, Hispanics have high rates of diabetes and heart disease, which both have recently been linked to the onset of Alzheimer's (Vertuno, AP/Dallas Morning News, 4/29).

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