HLA in kinship determinations among Haitian immigrants.

Immunogenetic study of alleged first-degree relatives was undertaken among 258 prospective United States immigrants from Haiti. Methods involved serotyping red cells for ABO, Rh, and MN antigens and typing leukocytes for HLA, A, B, and C locus antigens. Kinship was definitely excluded in a relatively low 4.2% of cases involving putative parents and children. Among cases involving alleged siblings, estimates of fraud appeared slightly higher, but the method is suspect because even in true sibships, there may be an absence of obligatory gene markers. Data suggests that some cases involved half-siblings rather than fraud. Of demonstrated exclusions of parent or child, HLA detected the lack of kinship in 87.4% versus 16.9% by red cell typing. However, there were cases in which exclusions were found by red cell methods alone; furthermore, red cell plus HLA typing allows for a calculation of probability of kinship that is analogous to calculations in paternity studies. Together, the red cell and leukocyte systems offer a prior probability of exclusion of parent-child relationships in 91.3%.