[W27 HL-A antigen. Diagnostic value in rheumatology]

The authors studied the tissue groups in a first series of patients with properly diagnosed rheumatic disorders. They found HL-A W27 antigen in 84 percent of 50 cases of primitive ankylosing spondylarthritis in adults, in 33 percent of the 50 cases of Fiessinger-Leroy-Reiter syndrome, in 20 percent of the 40 cases of psoriatic polyarthritis (50 percent of the 12 cases with radiological sacroiliac involvement) and in 66 percent of the 6 cases of spondylarthritis associated with haemorrhagic rectocolitis. In a second series of 45 patients with unclassifiable inflammatory rheumatism, only the W27 antigen tested for and it was found in 33 percent of the patients. On the basis of these observations, which were compared with those in other publications, the authors confirm the absence of a clear correlation between the pathological picture and the presence of the W27 antigen. They discuss the significance of the association between the W27 antigen and the disease, and underline the diagnostic and sometimes the prognostic value of the W27 test in rheumatology.