Unexplained high transcortin levels in patients with various hematological disorders and in the relatives: a connection between these high transcortin levels and HLA antigen B12.

Forty-one our of 141 patients with various hematological disorders had serum transcortin values more than 2 sDs above the normal mean (relative risk vs. controls, 10.78). Their relatives also had a higher incidence of unusually high transcortin values. The serum levels of steroid-binding beta-globulin were normal in these patients as well as in their relatives, making an increase in estrogenic impregnation as the cause of the high transcortin levels most improbable. Other known causes of increased transcortin levels could also be excluded. Such unusually high transcortin levels are 4.74 times more frequent in subjects carrying an HLA antigen B12 than in a control group [P (corrected) less than 0.006]. However, the HLA antigen B12 and hematological disorders were independently associated with high transcortin levels.