HLA and Graves' Disease in Korean

Abstract

The HLA-A, -B, -C and -DR antigen distribution in 137 and 128 Korean patients with Graves' disease, respectively, was compared with that in 220 controls. The frequency of HLA-B13, HLA-DR5 and HLA-DRw8 was significatly increased in patients with Graves' disease. The relative risk for Graves' disease in the individuals with these HLA antigens was calculated as 3,8, 4.4 and 2.3, respectively. Thus, genes promoting the development of Graves' disease in Korean are positively associated with the B13, DR5 and DRw8 haplotypes. However there was no significant correlation between the presence of these HLA antigens and the clinical features such as age at onset, sex, weight of goiter, exophthalmos, titer of autoantibodies, initial TBII values, and relapse and remission rates. Consequently, factors influencing the clinical features and the course of Graves' disease do not have a strong association with these HLA antigens.