Abstract

Ankylosing spondylitis (AS) is a chronic inflammatory disease with unknown etiology. Genetic and environmental factors are known to play important roles in the pathogenesis of the disease. A strong association has been detected between AS development and HLA B27. In this study, relationship between HLA B27 and AS in our region has been investigated in the light of literature.

In this study, distribution of HLA B27 frequency has been investigated in AS patients classified according to modified New York criteria and in healthy controls. Sequence specific primer polymerase chain reaction (SSP-PCR) technique was used for HLA B27 typing unrelated 84 AS patients and 73 bone marrow volunteer donors.

Mean age of AS patients were 31±11 years. In the same group, HLA B27 frequency was found higher in males (39.3%) compared to females (19.0%). HLA B27 positivity was found significantly higher in AS patients (58.3%) when compared the control group (4.3%) (p