HLA antigens in autoimmune thyroid diseases.

HLA antigens were determined in 85 unrelated Japanese patients with Graves' disease and 56 patients with Hashimoto's thyroiditis, with the use of the microcytotoxicity test. HLA-Bw35 was found in 36.4% of 85 patients with Graves' disease compared with 13.3% of 150 normal control subjects. This difference in antigen frequency is significant at the level of P less than .0005. The association with HLA-Bw35 in Japanese patients with Graves' diseases is different from that with HLA-B8 in white patients. In patients with Hashimoto's thyroiditis, HLA-Bw35 was also increased (28.5% of 56 patients) but not at a level of statistical significance (P less than .05).