HLA-DR typing in 58 cases of rheumatoid arthritis

The results of a previous study led us to believe that the association of HLA-DR4 and rheumatoid arthritis could be of particular interest in our region. In this work we typed 58 caucasoid patients in the Marseilles area by microlymphocytotoxicity assay in B-cells. HLA-DR4 was found to be at the same level as that observed by the authors in the 8th Workshop of histocompatibility (1980) (X2:32.36, P less than 0.001) and very high in the seropositive patients (61.5 per cent). No correlation with sex was observed. We again found a low frequency of HLA-DR4 (15.8 per cent) in our controls.