Familial dilated cardiomyopathy and human leucocyte antigen. A report of two family cases.

Two familial cases of dilated cardiomyopathy were evaluated by HL-A typing. In the case of the first family, the mode of inheritance is likely to be an autosomal dominant trait. Only the affected individuals carried the identical HL-A haplotype (A2, Bw54, Cw1, DR4, DQw3), while the unaffected members do not share this pattern. In the second family case, the disease is probably inherited by autosomal recessive traits. All of the family members examined shared the identical HL-A haplotype (A24, Bw52, DR2, DQw1), but only the affected individuals were homozygous for this haplotype.