An association study of Huntington's disease and HLA.

HLA antigens were determined in a sample of 47 patients with the diagnosis and family history of Huntington's disease (HD). Two groups consisting of 20 and 11 unrelated patients respectively were investigated. In the first group an increased frequency of HLA-Bw44 (p less than 0.05) and of HLA-A11 (p less than 0.05) was found, but after correcting for multiple inferences the differences were no longer statistically significant. No correlation was found between sex, age of onset, initial symptom, and HLA type. In order to find out if the increased frequency of HLA-Bw44 was real or due to chance, the second group of patients was investigated. In this group the frequency of HLA-Bw44 did not differ from the normal population and a strong association between HLA and HD could be excluded.