HLA antigen typing in patient with chronic uveitis & in patients with behcet’s disease presenting with chronic uveitis

الملخص EN

Background : uveitis is a significant cause of visual impairment and immune mechanisms are thought to be involved in the pathogenesis of disease.

The main aim of this study is to find a relationship between specific HLA antigen pattern in patients with chronic uveitis and in patients with Behçet’s disease presenting with chronic uveitis in Iraqi patients. Patients and methods : A total number of 44 Iraqi patients (male = 18 and female = 26) with mean age 31,4 years that had been referred and examined at the ophthalmology center from January 2009 to march 2011 were enrolled in our study.

Only 6 patients enrolled in the study (13, 6 %) fulfilled the criteria of Behçet’s disease according to international classifications. Results : there was no significant statistical association between HLA antigen and chronic uveitis in our study (p value = 0.98) and anterior uveitis occurred in about 24 patients (54.5 %) and pan uveitis in 20 patients (45.5 %) while intermediate uveitis was not diagnosed in our patients enrolled in this study.

The 6 patients (13, 6 %) that fulfilled criteria for Behçet's disease (3 with anterior uveitis and 3 with pan uveitis) and all the patients showed strong association with HLA B51 which is the more prevalent antigen in the patients enrolled in this study (27 %).