Association of HLA-DR2 with chronic chagasic cardiopathy in a population at Paraná Northeast region, Brazil

Abstract

Chagas’ disease is one of the major problems concerning public health in Brazil and other Latin American countries. Nevertheless, few studies have addressed the genetic susceptibility to this disease. As immune response genes are located into the HLA system, there was a good reason to study the association between HLA antigens and the cardiac form of Chagas’ disease. Thirty-five patients and seventy-two normal individuals, living in the State of Paraná northern region, Brazil, were used as test and control groups, respectively. Classical statistical methods were used to compare HLA frequencies between these groups. Data confirmed a positive primary association with HLA-DR2 (48.4%vs12.3%; Pc=0,0011) and a secondary association with HLA-B7 (31.4%vs8.3%; Pc=0.033). In conclusion, a positive association between DR2 and chronic chagasic cardiopathy was demonstrated in the caucasian Brazilian population, thus supporting the hypothesis of the involvement of genetic factors in the susceptibility to the cardiac form of Chagas’ disease