Osteoarticular involvement of brucellosis and HLA-B27 antigen frequency in Turkish patients

The aim of the present study is to investigate a possible association between osteoarticular involvement of brucellosis and HLA-B27 antigen. Standard microtoxicity technique method was used for detection of HLA-B27 antigen in 78 patients with brucellosis and 100 healthy donors. Osteoarticular complications were defined in 25 of 78 patients (32.1%). Overall frequency of HLA-B27 in the study group was 14.1% (11/78) and 16% (4/25) in patients with osteoarticular involvement, while it was 8% (8/100) in the control group. Although HLA-B27 frequency in osteoarticular group was slightly higher than both of the other two groups, there was no significant difference (p > 0.05). Conclusively, we could say that further studies including a larger number of patients with osteoarticular involvement of brucellosis may need to be performed in order to find a possible association.