Distribution of HLA-B27 in Patients With Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis

To the Editor: Lately there has been extensive searching for an association between histocompatibility antigen (HLA) and specific disease. Rachelefsky et al. demonstrated that HLA-B27 was found in 42% of all juvenile rheumatoid arthritis patients examined.1 Gibson et al. showed the frequency of this1 phenotype was 16%.2 These reports stimulated us to examine whether a similar relationship could be demonstrated in Japanese patients. Twenty-four HLA antigens were examined in 181 normal Japanese controls and in