Long term prognosis of systemic juvenile chronic arthritis range from full recovery to extremely severe crippling polyarthritis. An association between HLA-DR4 and a poor articular outcome has been reported. We studied the frequencies of class I, class II, and class III antigens according to clinical and laboratory test findings, particularly presence of antibodies to type II collagen, in a cohort of 108 patients.
A number of clinical and laboratory test findings were recorded at the time of the study. Class A, B, C, and DR antigens were assayed using a microcytotoxicity method. Antibodies to type II collagen were evaluated by ELISA. BMDP software was used for the statistical analysis.
No significant differences in antigen frequencies were found between patients and controls for any of the loci. There were no significant differences in HLA-DR antigen frequencies between patients with favorable joint outcomes and those with chronic polyarthritis.
Our findings do not corroborate those of earlier studies in smaller numbers of patients.