HLA Antigens and Idiopathic Epilepsy

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Abstract
Fifty-two mentally normal Egyptian children with idiopathic epilepsy were human leukocyte antigen (HLA) typed. They were divided into 2 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 significantly higher in the total epilepsy group and the 2 subgroups. This finding, together with the low HLA-A9 gene frequency in the present group of normal Egyptians as compared with other ethnic populations, strongly suggests an association between antigen A9 and 1 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.