Familial giant cell arteritis: report of an HLA-typed sibling pair and a review of the literature.
We report a brother and sister who developed biopsy-proven giant cell arteritis four years apart and summarize the eight previously well-documented families of first-degree relatives with unequivocal disease. HLA haplotypes for both siblings included DRB1*03 (DR3) and the *0401 allele of DRB1*04 (DR4). The reported association of giant cell arteritis with HLA-DR4 and its occurrence in first-degree relatives support a genetic component in its pathogenesis.
Wernick
R
R
Oregon Health Sciences University, Providence Medical Center, Portland.
Davey
M
M
Bonafede
P
P
D000368:Aged; D005192:Family Health; D005260:Female; D013700:Giant Cell Arteritis / Q000235:genetics* / Q000276:immunology; D006680:HLA Antigens / Q000235:genetics*; D015804:HLA-DR4 Antigen / Q000235:genetics; D006650:Histocompatibility Testing; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male
D006680:HLA Antigens; D015804:HLA-DR4 Antigen