Distribution and Protective Role of HLAB40 in Iranian Patients with Kawasaki Disease; a Report from Southern Iran

OBJECTIVE Kawasaki disease (KD) clinically presents as a systemic vasculitis syndrome with significant cardiovascular involvement. With different incidence among different ethnic groups, the role of certain human leukocyte antigens and their products has been considered as a crucial predisposing factor in the immune responses in this disease. METHODS We determined the distribution of human leukocyte antigens type B for 90 Iranian patients with Kawasaki disease in order to evaluate a possible association between these antigens and this disease in our area. We used the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) sequence specific primers (PCR-SSP) technique for antigen typing. Distribution of these antigens for 89 healthy Iranians used as control. Findings : While 7 (3.9%) of our patients were positive for human leukocyte antigen type B 40(*), there were 18 (10.1%) subjects from the control group who had this antigen with statistically significant difference between patients and control group (CI= 95%, RR=1.15 and P= 0.02). Data were analyzed by Pearson chi-square test and Fisher's exact test. SPSS version 15 was used for statistical analysis and a P value less than 0.05 considered statistically significant CONCLUSION The presence of higher frequency of allele type-B40(*) in the control group may represent a protective role for this antigen with resultant decreased susceptibility to KD in our area.