HLA-B14 antigen and postencephalitic Parkinson's disease. Their association in an American-Jewish ethnic group.

Eighteen unrelated American-Jewish patients of Eastern European extraction who had classical postencephalitic Parkinson's disease were typed for HLA-A, HLA-B, and HLA-C antigenic determinants. Compared with 147 ethnically matched controls, the HLA-B14 antigen showed a highly significantly increased frequency in the postencephalitic Parkinson's group (corrected P = .001). This association, though not necessarily reflecting genetic susceptibility to the disease, strongly suggests such a possibility in the pathogenesis of at least this particular variant of parkinsonism.