HLA-B15 association with erythema multiforme.

Erythema multiforme (EM) is a cutaneous reaction pattern which follows numerous infections, drugs, neoplastic and inflammatory disorders in some individuals. We undertook a prospective study of thirty-eight HLA specificities of the -A, -B, and -C series in 16 Caucasian patients with EM and in 140 local Caucasian controls. Seven of 16 patients (44%) with EM and 5 of 9 patients (55%) with EM following herpes simplex infections possessed the HLA-B15 antigen, compared to 7% of local controls and 11.6% of the 1980 WHO Workshop Caucasian controls. Both associations were highly significant (p = 0.0125 and p = 0.02) when corrected for 38 HLA antigens. This is the first reported HLA association for erythema multiforme, a disease which may be a host-specific immune response to various antigens, determined in part by genes linked to HLA-B15.