title: Genetic studies, clinical heterogeneity, and disease outcome studies in rheumatoid arthritis.
abstract: HLA haplotypes influence various clinical RA features considered to reflect severity in case-control and cohort studies. Of particular note is the fact that HLA generally influences the development of erosive and sometimes seropositive and nodular disease; in prospective studies, it noticeably affects joint surgical intervention. These are valuable clues indicating that HLA influences RA severity and chronicity. Nevertheless, HLA influences are generally weak enough so as to require large study subject numbers for detection. As a result, HLA genotyping has restricted usefulness for prediction of clinical severity in individual patients.
authors.affiliation: Department of Internal Medicine, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, Virginia, USA. gmoxley@hsc.vcu.edu
authors.forename: George
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Moxley
authors.forename: Harley J
authors.initials: HJ
authors.lastname: Cohen
mesh_terms: D001172:Arthritis, Rheumatoid / Q000235:genetics* / Q000503:physiopathology*; D018740:Genetic Heterogeneity; D006680:HLA Antigens / Q000235:genetics; D006801:Humans; D011379:Prognosis
chemical_list: D006680:HLA Antigens