Increased Prevalence of W27 in Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis

Abstract

ONE extremely important association of histocompatibility antigen (HL-A) with susceptibility to disease has recently been recognized. This antigen, the W27 antigen, is present in about 6 per cent of the control population, but in 80 to 90 per cent of patients with ankylosing spondylitis,^{1 , 2} 76 to 96 per cent with Reiter's disease^{3 , 4} and 55 per cent with acute anterior uveitis.⁵ The clinical similarities of ankylosing spondylitis and juvenile rheumatoid arthritis⁶ and the high prevalence of anterior uveitis in juvenile arthritis⁷ prompted this examination of our patients with juvenile rheumatoid arthritis for the presence of HL-A W27.Materials and MethodsTwenty-six . . .