Genetic heterogeneity in uveitis

Eighty-nine unrelated patients with ocular inflammation (uveitis) were investigated for the HLA class I and class II genetic markers, We subdivided our patients according to: 1. the anatomical location of the lesion; 2. the temporal course of the disease; 3. the aetiology. We eliminated from our sample of patients the individuals with other systemic diseases. We could not find an association with B27, as previously described, but we did note statistically significant differences between the class II antigen distribution in the different anatomical subgroups. HLA-DR3 seems a marker of the intermediate form of uveitis (p, uncorrected 0.03); the absence of DR1 in the patient group with posterior uveitis may be a protecting factor (p. uncorrected less than 0.01); the presence of DR4 in all cases of panuveitis is statistically significant (p, uncorrected = 0.0006).