The HLA Bw4/w6 Diallelic System in Graves' Disease

Abstract
Twenty-one out of the 22 patients with Graves'' disease were HLA-Bw6 positive and 16 of these were homozygous, contrasted with 28 and 9 out of 34 controls, respectively. HLA-Bw6 positivity results in a relative risk for Graves'' disease of 3.27; homozygosity for that allele further increases the risk to 7.4. It is possible that the increased risk attached to HLA-Bw6 is secondary to the increase in HLA-B8 previously described in Graves'' disease.