Association of HLA antigens with chronic active hepatitis (CAH) in children

HLA-A and -B antigen frequencies were investigated in a group of 46 children with chronic active hepatitis (CAH) and in a control group of 100 healthy children. The diseased group comprised 43 HBsAg positive and 3 HBsAg negative children. From the antigen frequencies relative risks (RR) were calculated according to the method of Woolf. The A1 and B8 antigens, known to be associated with autoimmune diseases, were only moderately more frequent in the CAH group than in the control. The relative risk for B8 antigen was 2.23 which is near to a significance level of p = 0.05. When the calculations were performed for 43 HBsAg positive CAH children the RR decreased to 1.70. Additionally, observations were performed on associations of HLA antigens with the occurrence of antinuclear antibodies (ANA) and anti-smooth muscle antibodies (SMA). Positive associations were found for ANA with B13 antigen (RR = 14.13) and for SMA with B5 antigen (RR = 13.66) with X2 4.85, and 5.51 respectively, at 1 degree of freedom. The p values, situated between 0.05 and 0.01 were insignificant after the correction for the number of antigens studied.