HLA and rheumatoid arthritis in the japanese

Abstract

Sixty‐three Japanese patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) were typed for HLA‐A, ‐B, and ‐DR locus specificities. A significant association was found only with increased frequency of HLA‐DR4 in the patients (71.4%) compared with controls (41.8%) (corrected P = 0.007, relative risk = 3.5). No association was found with HLA‐A9 or HLA‐Bw54, which are in linkage disequilibrium with HLA‐DR4 in the Japanese. The association between HLA‐DR4 and RA observed in these Japanese patients has also been demonstrated in the white population.