A Genetic Study of Behqet Disease in Israel

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Abstract
The frequency of HLA-B5 in 24 Israeli Behcet disease (BD) patients from various subpopulations was significantly greater than in 615 control individuals (P < 0.003). The relative risk for a B5 carrier to develop BD was calculated to be 5.0. Six patients were offspring of consanguineous marriages, which is not unexpected in the populations studied. Five of the patients had only 1 HLA-B antigen, which in 4 cases was B5. Two of the latter were B5 homozygotes possibly indicating a greater susceptibility. This study confirms the reported association between BD and HLA-B5 in a population not previously investigated. B5 is apparently associated with BD in populations deriving from the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and Far East.
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