IS HLA-DRW13 (W6) ASSOCIATED WITH JUVENILE MYOCLONIC EPILEPSY IN ARABPATIENTS

In a study of 32 unrelated Arab patients with juvenile myoclonic epile psy (JME), we compared the frequencies of human leukocyte antigen (HLA ) class I and II alleles with those of unrelated healthy controls. A s ignificant difference between the phenotypic frequencies in JME patien ts and controls was observed for DRW13, the split of DRW6 (37.5 vs 11% of controls). The strength of association as measured by the relative risk was 4.85 for this antigen (p = 0.002). The possible association of JME with HLA-DRW6 recently reported in Caucasians was confirmed in this study. This finding speaks for the homogeneity of the disease amo ng Arabic and Caucasian JME patients. The existence of this associatio n is evidence of a locus in the HLA region that influences expression of JME.