An immunogenetic study in hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.

Research of the relevant international literature on HLA studies in patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy yielded controversial results. There are no studies, conducted in sufficiently large groups of patients, that would consider the different functional and morphological forms of the disease. Therefore, the authors carried out detailed typing of 60 Class I and II antigens in 117 patients known to suffer from hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. Values of the relative risk and chi-square test showed a number of possible associations. However, after correction for the number of antigens tested, only HLA-B21 was shown to have a significantly high frequency (in patients with the obstructive form and in those with advanced myocardial hypertrophy, defined as a wall thickness greater than 30 mm). An association with this antigen has previously been demonstrated in a number of cases of ischaemic heart disease, myocardial infarction of young people, and in hypertensive subjects. HLA typing may be helpful in recognizing forms which are not fully typical. In Czechoslovakia, HLA-B21 carriers are at increased risk of developing a serious heart disease manifesting already in young age.