title: HLA-DR2 and narcolepsy.
abstract: Tissue typing was performed on 14 narcoleptics as defined by both strict sleep laboratory and clinical criteria. Six of these patients were blacks from North America, a race underrepresented in previous studies. All patients were HLA-DR2-antigen positive and had the same HLA-DR2 subtype. Clinical severity of disease was not correlated with HLA-DR2 heterozygosity or (putative) homozygosity. This study confirms that the extremely high association between HLA-DR2 and narcolepsy holds across comparisons of the three races studied to date when both clinical and sleep laboratory data are used. The presence or absence of HLA-DR2 in patients presenting with hypersomnolence may help support or exclude, respectively, a diagnosis of idiopathic narcolepsy.
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D044466:Asian People; D044383:Black People; D005260:Female; D006681:HLA-D Antigens / Q000032:analysis*; D006684:HLA-DR Antigens / Q000032:analysis*; D015802:HLA-DR2 Antigen; D006650:Histocompatibility Testing; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009290:Narcolepsy / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000235:genetics*; D009656:North America; D044465:White People
chemical_list: D006681:HLA-D Antigens; D006684:HLA-DR Antigens; D015802:HLA-DR2 Antigen