HLA and recurrent episodic arthropathy associated with rubella vaccination

The frequencies of 21 HLA antigens in 33 patients who developed recurrent, episodic arthropathy after receiving the HPV-77 DK-12 rubella vaccine have been determined and compared with those of a control population. Trends toward increased frequencies of HLA antigens B12 (P = 0.02) and B14 (P = 0.04) and of the haplotype A2, B12 (P = 0.01) did not reach significance when corrections for the number of antigen determinations were included in the statistical analysis. These data show that the syndrome of recurrent arthropathy following rubella vaccination is genetically distinct from the connective tissue diseases associated with HLA-B27.