ABSTRACT
Thirty-nine mentally normal unrelated children diagnosed as having febrile convulsions were included in this study. The following have been carried out: (a) detailed anamnesis and clinical examination; (b) cerebrospinal fluid investigation; (c) EEG examination between attacks; (d) HLA-antigen determination; (e) estimation of serum IgA, IgG, IgM; and (f) counting of percent spontaneous E-rosette formation. The results were statistically compared to normal Egyptian controls. The results could be summarised as follows. (1) Only HLA-B5 antigen frequency is high among patients (chi 2c = 19.1, P less than 0.0001). Relative risk is 4.4 which shows significant association (WY2 = 29.145, P less than 0.0001) and etiologic fraction equals 0.377. (2) The means of IgA and E-rosette in the patients were significantly low (t = 3.46, P less than 0.01 and t = 3.92, P less than 0.001, respectively), (3) HLA-B5 is the only antigen with high frequency among the two groups of patients with low IgA and E-rosette (chi 2c = 11.9 and 18.2, respectively). (4) There is a significant association between B5 and low IgA (P less than 0.05) but not with low E-rosette (P greater than 0.05). The suggestion is that the genetic control of febrile convulsions is in linkage disequilibrium with HLA-B5, low IgA and low total T-cells. This altered immune function in otherwise normal children with febrile convulsions may predispose them to acute infections and high fever which precipitate convulsions.
Subject(s)
HLA-B Antigens , Seizures, Febrile/immunology , Child , Child, Preschool , Female , Gene Frequency , Genetic Linkage , HLA Antigens/genetics , Humans , IgA Deficiency , Immunoglobulin A/genetics , Infant , Leukocyte Count , Male , Rosette Formation , Seizures, Febrile/blood , Seizures, Febrile/genetics , T-Lymphocytes/immunologyABSTRACT
A microlymphocytotoxicity test determined serologically the frequency of HLA antigens in 32 patients with Guillain-Barré syndrome and in 234 healthy control subjects. The results demonstrated significantly increased frequencies of A3 and B8. The relative risk was estimated to be 9.6 and 4.6 for the A3 and B8 antigens, respectively. Study of the gametic association revealed weak positive linkage disequilibrium and biological association. The results are discussed, and it is concluded that the aberrant genetic make-up of the patients makes them more susceptible to develop the syndrome after exposure to the environmental factor(s).
Subject(s)
HLA Antigens/analysis , Polyradiculoneuropathy/immunology , Child , Child, Preschool , Cytotoxicity Tests, Immunologic , Female , Gene Frequency , HLA Antigens/genetics , Humans , Male , Polyradiculoneuropathy/geneticsABSTRACT
Fifty-two mentally normal Egyptian children with idiopathic epilepsy were human leukocyte antigen (HLA) typed. They were divided into two subgroups: generalized tonic-clonic seizures (36 cases) and absences (16 cases). When the frequencies of HLA antigens were compared statistically with those of 120 normal controls, HLA-A9 was found to be significantly higher in the total epilepsy group and the two subgroups. This finding, together with the low HLA-A9 gene frequency in our group of normal Egyptians as compared with other ethnic populations, strongly suggests an association between antigen A9 and one or more of the polygenes controlling the development of idiopathic epilepsy. The relative risk indicated that persons having antigen A9 are 16 times more susceptible to epilepsy than persons lacking it.
