Association of HLA Type with Stevens-Johnson Syndrome Induced by Methazolamide Treatment

ABSTRACT

There have been reports between Stevens-Johnson syndrome (SJS)induced by methazolamide treatment and genetic background especially in Japanese and Korean descent.We report 6 cases of SJS and the results of HLA (human leukocyte antigen)typing that suggest a relationship between genetic background and SJS induced by methazolamide treatment. We observed 6 patients as the subjects of this research, who had been suffering from SJS induced by methazolamide treatment at the Department of Ophthalmology, Catholic University.SJS appeared about 2 weeks after the patient started taking methazolamide (100 or 200 mg/d).After 15~30 days of treatment, they recovered with no serious complication.The results of HLA typing carried out 6 patients that all of the patients had HLA-A2, 5 patients were HLA-Cw1 and HLA-B59. Methazolamide should be carefully prescribed in patients of Japanese or Koreans descent and should not prescribe sulfonamide in SJS patients. A further systematic research on more cases is required to explaining ethnic peculiarity of the syndrome.