Lack of HLA-antigen association in Greek rheumatoid arthritis patients

One hundred and eighteen unrelated Greek patients with classic rheumatoid arthritis (RA) were tissue-typed for HLA-A, -B, -DR antigens and the frequency was compared to that of healthy controls. Greek RA patients regardless of sex, anatomical severity, seropositivity and age at disease onset are not associated with any of the HLA alloantigens tested. Only an increased prevalence, not statistically significant, was observed of the HLA-DR5 antigen in the Ro (SSA) positive RA group.