Distribution of class I and class II human leukocyte antigens in children with acute rheumatic fever

Abstract

The aim of our study was to examine the relation of human leukocyte antigens (HLA), which may be associated with acute rheumatic fever (ARF) in our population, in relatively more homogeneous patient groups. Our study group consisted of 80 patients (10.6±2.6 years, median: 5-18 years) and the control group consisted of 63 healthy bone marrow or renal donors. Tissue typing of all patients was performed by polymerase chain reaction (PCR). According to the HLA frequencies, no significant association was found between the ARF patients and the controls. When patients were divided into subgroups by major clinical manifestations at the first attack, HLA B27 (p<0.05) in patients with isolated carditis (n=25), HLA B57 (p<0.05) in patients with polyarthritis+carditis (n=30), HLA A2 and B48 (p<0.05) in patients with isolated chorea (n=3), and HLA B13 (p<0.05) in patients with chorea+carditis (n=14) were found to be more frequent than in controls. No similar relation for isolated arthritis was observed. Studies performed on homogeneous groups pointed out that HLA class I antigens may be a determining factor on the development of the first attack of the disease. The results of our study should be supported with wider studies including more patients in each subgroup.