HLA and thyrotoxicosis (Grave's disease) in Chinese

Abstract

HLA locus A and B typing were performed on 86 Chinese thyrotoxicosis (Grave's disease) patients and 238 normal Chinese subjects. The frequency of HLA-BW46 (Sin 2) was found to be significantly higher among the patients than controls (X2 = 26.15, corrected p < .003, Relative risk = 3.74). The greatest difference between patients and controls was seen in the joint occurrences of haplotypes. The joint occurrence of A2 BW46 and A11 B40 was observed in 10/86 (11.6%) patients compared to 2/238 (0.8%) controls (X2 = 17.70, p < .0001, Relative risk = 15.53), and the joint occurrence of A2 BW46 and A11 B13 was observed in 6/86 (7%) patients and 2/238 (0.8%) controls (X2 = 8.85, p < .005, Relative risk = 7.49).