Juvenile rheumatoid arthritis and HLA: report of the Park City III workshop.

The workshop held during the Park City Meeting was directed toward developing a consensus about HLA associations in juvenile rheumatoid arthritis (JRA). Most agreement was achieved in pauciarticular JRA where the strongest associations were with the HLA-DRB1 alleles as is also the case in IgM rheumatoid factor positive polyarticular disease. In addition, HLA-DP associations are being identified although roles for linked genes are still possible. The critical nucleotides among HLA genes are not known; however, disease specific mutations have not been shown.