EVALUATION OF 278 HLA-B27 POSITIVE PATIENTS SUSPECTED OF SERONEGATIVE SPONDYLOARTHROPATHIES
Objective: To determine HLA-1327 prevalence in patients suspected of Seronegative spondyloarthropathy referred to the Transplantation Department of Blood Transfusion Organization, and to evaluate clinical findings among HLA-1327 positive patients.Methodology: One thousand six hundred ten patients having clinical manifestation of seronegative SpAs were screened for HLA typing by serological methods from January 1997 to June 2002 at Transplantation Department of Blood Transfusion Organization, Ahwaz, Iran. Serologic-based HLA typing using Antigen-specific sera to determine a person's HLA type was performed. Among these patients, individuals found HLA-1327 positive were investigated regarding clinical findings, age, and sex distribution.Results: In this study the frequency of HLA-1327 antigen was 17.26% (278 cases). The minimum age in mates was 10 years and the maximum age in female was 70 years. Median age with seronegative SpAs findings (34.2% including 28.42% females, 71.57% males) was 20-30 years. Based on our results, the most frequent clinical manifestation, was peripheral joints arthritis (58.7%; 34.35% females, 65.65 % males). There were no association between any of the major clinical manifestations and age or sex distribution.Conclusions: These findings confirm the strong association of the HLA B27 allele with various types of spondyloarthritis and suggests that HLA typing would help in the diagnosis of seronagative SpAs, specially ankylosing spondylitis with indeterminate clinical presentation and also in identifying at risk family members.