Kurtzke J F, Beebe G W, Norman J E
Neurology. 1979 Sep;29(9 Pt 1):1228-35. doi: 10.1212/wnl.29.9_part_1.1228.
Five thousand three hundred five World War II and Korean conflict veterans who have been compensated by the Veterans Administration for multiple sclerosis (MS) were matched to controls on the basis of age, date of entry into military service, and branch of service. Case/control ratios for white males, white females, and black males were 1.04, 1.86, and 0.45, respectively. The coterminous 48 states, divided into three tiers on the basis of latitude, exhibited the well-known north-south gradient in risk: For all races and both sexes, case/control ratios were 1.41, 1.00, and 0.53 for the North, Middle, and South tiers. Both white females and black males showed this same north-to-south variation in risk. The case/control ratio for males of races other than black or white was 0.23, with possible deficits in risk for American Indians and Japanese-Americans. Filipinos and Hawaiian Japanese were significantly low-risk groups. These findings suggest that both a racial and a possibly genetic predisposition, as well as a geographically determined differential exposure to an environmental agent, are related to the risk of MS.
5305名因患多发性硬化症（MS）而获得退伍军人管理局补偿的第二次世界大战和朝鲜冲突退伍军人，按照年龄、入伍日期和军种与对照组进行匹配。白人男性、白人女性和黑人男性的病例/对照比率分别为1.04、1.86和0.45。毗连的48个州根据纬度分为三层，呈现出众所周知的南北风险梯度：对于所有种族和两性而言，北部、中部和南部三层的病例/对照比率分别为1.41、1.00和0.53。白人女性和黑人男性在风险上都呈现出这种相同的南北差异。非黑种或白种男性的病例/对照比率为0.23，美洲印第安人和日裔美国人可能存在风险不足。菲律宾人和夏威夷日裔是显著的低风险群体。这些发现表明，种族和可能的遗传易感性，以及地理上决定的对环境因素的不同暴露，都与MS的风险有关。
