title: [Association of HLA class I antigens with Behçet disease in South Tunisia].
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To study antigen HLA class I association with different clinical forms of Behçet's disease in South Tunisian population.
  
  
  METHODS
  We retrospectively reviewed 129 clinical case patients. All of the patients fulfilled the criteria of the international study group for Behçet's disease, and were followed at the department of internal medicine of the university hospital of Sfax. HLA class I phenotyping was performed by microlymphocytotoxicity complement dependent for our 129 patients and for 123 healthy controls. We used the program SPSS 11.0 to analyse clinical data and to compare HLA class I antigen distribution between these two populations.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The study group concerned a total of 129 patients (81 males and 48 females). The mean age at disease onset was of 32 years. HLA-B51 antigen was the only antigen significantly more frequent among patients (24.81%) than controls (9.76%, p=0.002). HLA-B44 was significantly more frequent among patients having familial history of recurrent buccal aphthosis or Behçet disease. HLA-A11 antigen was associated with early disease onset, and HLA-A1 was negatively associated with severe form of the disease (neurological, vascular or ocular manifestations).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our study confirmed the HLA-B51 association with Behçet disease. Nevertheless, B51 frequency in South Tunisian patients was lower than that found in other studies regardless of the clinical manifestation.
authors.affiliation: Service de laboratoire, EPS Hédi Chaker, route El-Ain Km 0,5, 3039 Sfax, Tunisie. arwakamoun@yahoo.fr
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kamoun
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Mahfoudh
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Frigui
authors.forename: Z
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Bahloul
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Makni
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001528:Behcet Syndrome / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000235:genetics* / Q000276:immunology*; D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D005805:Genes, MHC Class I; D056726:Genetic Association Studies; D020022:Genetic Predisposition to Disease; D006680:HLA Antigens / Q000502:physiology; D006650:Histocompatibility Testing; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D014416:Tunisia / Q000453:epidemiology; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D006680:HLA Antigens