title: Pacemaker treated women with heart block have no increase in the frequency of HLA-B27 and associated rheumatic disorders in contrast to men--a sex linked difference in disease susceptibility.
abstract: HLA-B27 associated rheumatic syndromes have been found in 13% of more than 200 pacemaker treated Caucasian men. Furthermore, a significantly increased frequency of HLA-B27 was found in pacemaker treated men without HLA-B27 associated rheumatic disorders. Consequently, an HLA-B27 associated disease process seems to be the cause of heart block development in 15 to 20% of Caucasian pacemaker treated men. The purpose of our study was to find out if the HLA-B27 associated disease process was equally common in pacemaker treated women. Eighty-five pacemaker treated women with second and third degree heart block were HLA typed for B27, and HLA-B27 positive individuals were further examined for the presence of associated rheumatic disorders. HLA-B27 was present in 7 women, 8.2%, similar to the frequency in the general population, and none of them had an associated rheumatic disease. Thus, there is a significant sex linked difference in the susceptibility to HLA-B27 associated heart block.
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D004198:Disease Susceptibility; D005260:Female; D008040:Genetic Linkage; D006680:HLA Antigens / Q000235:genetics*; D015796:HLA-B27 Antigen; D006327:Heart Block / Q000209:etiology / Q000235:genetics / Q000628:therapy*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010138:Pacemaker, Artificial; D012216:Rheumatic Diseases / Q000150:complications / Q000235:genetics*; D012727:Sex Characteristics
chemical_list: D006680:HLA Antigens; D015796:HLA-B27 Antigen