[Behcet's disease and associations with HLA-B5 antigen (a review of literature and the authors' findings)].

Aim: To estimate the distribution of HLA Class I (A, B) antigens in patients with Behcet's disease (BD) and the association of HLA-B5 antigen with the clinical manifestations of the disease in different ethnic and population groups in relation to gender.

Subjects And Methods: The study covered 93 patients (68 males, 25 females) from the representatives of 24 ethnicities with the verified disease. HLA Class I antigens were typed by the microlymphocytotoxic technique, by applying an antileukocytic serum kit (GISANS, Saint Petersburg).

Results: In patients with BD, the prevalence of HLA-B5 antigen proved to be significantly higher than that in the controls (72.0 and 21%, respectively) and to be similar in patients of different ethnicities living in the Caucasus and Transcaucasus (80-83%) while the number of HLA-B5 antigen-positive patients with BD was thrice less in the Russian population than in other BD patients (p < 0.01). There was a significant correlation of HLA-B5 antigen with ocular lesion (retinal angiitis) predominantly in male patients with BD.

Conclusion: The prevalence of HLA-B5 antigen was higher in patients with BD than in the population-based control. The diagnostic value of this antigen is not so great, for example, in the Russian population of patients with BD. The presence of HLA-B5 antigen in the phenotype of male patients with BD may be regarded as a prognostically poor marker of development of eye diseases.