HLA associations in Italian and non‐Italian Caucasoid aplastic anaemia patients*

Abstract

A reassessment of HLA-A and B antigen associations in patients with severe aplastic anemia confirmed the significantly elevated frequency of HLA-A2 in Caucasoid patients reported by Albert et al. A highly significant increase in the frequency of HLA-B14 in Italian patients was observed in an initial sample of 25 patients and confirmed in a 2nd sample of 16 patients. This latter findings was cancelled out when the Italian Caucasoid patients were pooled with the non-Italian Caucasoid patients. The classification of populations as Caucasoids, without examining their ethnic origins, may introduce a serious confounding error into HLA and disease studies.