Increased blood mercury levels in patients with Alzheimer's disease.

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a common neurodegenerative disorder that leads to dementia and death. In addition to several genetic parameters, various environmental factors may influence the risk of getting AD. In order to test whether blood levels of the heavy metal mercury are increased in AD, we measured blood mercury concentrations in AD patients (n = 33), and compared them to age-matched control patients with major depression (MD) (n = 45), as well as to an additional control group of patients with various non-psychiatric disorders (n = 65). Blood mercury levels were more than two-fold higher in AD patients as compared to both control groups (p = 0.0005, and p = 0.0000, respectively). In…