HLA-A, B, DR, and DQ antigens in black patients with severe chronic rheumatic heart disease.

To determine whether genetic factors could be involved in the pathogenesis of rheumatic heart disease, we performed HLA-A and HLA-B typing in 120 black patients with severe chronic rheumatic heart disease requiring cardiac surgery, and HLA-DR and HLA-DQ typing in 103 and 97 of these patients, respectively. The HLA typing was done by a standard microlymphocytotoxicity method. Patients were 12 to 60 years old (mean 27.

Histocompatibility antigens in Indian patients with myocardial infarction.

The frequency of HLA-A, B, C and DR tissue antigens in 103 Indian men aged 40 years or under who had experienced a myocardial infarction was compared with the frequency in 760 healthy Indian controls. No significant differences in antigen frequencies were found. The findings in this study provide no support for either a genetic or an immunological basis for myocardial infarction in young Indian men.

HLA and cancer in South African Indians.

Two-hundred-and-forty-nine Indian cancer patients were tested for 39 HLA antigens and the antigen frequencies were compared with those of 603 control subjects. Comparisons were also made between cancer patients and controls for each ethnic group and for each site of cancer. There was an increase in the frequency of the HLA antigens A11 and Bw52 in patients with malignancies.

HLA and cancer in South African Negroes.

Five hundred patients with cancer were tested for 32 HLA antigens and the antigen frequencies compared with those of 500 control subjects matched for race, sex and age. Although the overall frequencies showed no significant differences, detailed analysis with regard to site of cancer, age and the number of antigens detected at each locus revealed significant differences. Phenotype tables and haplotype frequencies have been included.