Rangel VS, González GN, Monzón PME, Ortega CA, García MG

Language: Spanish
References: 0
Page: 78-84
PDF size: 211.10 Kb.

ABSTRACT

The detection by molecular methods of the HLA-B*27 allele has become in recent years in Cuba in a tool that supports the diagnosis of some diseases generally known as spondyloarthropathies (SpA). In order to determine the percentage of the gene positivity in individuals with clinical suspicion of SpA and uveitis, we studied 236 DNA samples characterized in gender, age and skin color, of patients with HLA-B*27 indication. The genotyping was performed by Real Time - PCR with the LightMix HLA-B*27 SimpleProbe kit (TIBMOLBIOL). The 42.7 % of the cases were older than 40 years, with a mean of 39 years old and a male - female ratio of 0.84; however, patients debuting with HLA-B*27-related diseases should be predominantly males between the second and third decade of life. Our results showed that 188 (78.4 %) were negative and only 51 (21.6 %) were positive however, according to the type of pathology, the frequency of this gene should be between 36.0 % and 90.0 %. The statistical differences were only associate to gender but not in the groups of different skin color and presumptive diagnosis. The 18.0 % of the laboratory test request forms had no diagnostic impression and these cases had the lowest positivity rates. The present results show that the requests for HLA-B*27 generated in the Cuban health system do not follow uniform criteria of clinical suspicion of SpA and uveitis; and that request forms do not include the necessary data to allow a correct interpretation of this immunogenetic test.