Hereditary Factors in Rheumatoid Arthritis and Ankylosing Spondylitis

Familial aggregation and rheumatoid disease

“…According to Lawrence, these criteria do offer certain theoretical advantages over a simple clinical grading for rheumatoid arthritis. 5 Another possible source of error in the earlier family studies is that the index cases with rheumatoid arthritis were derived from the private practices of rheumatologists or from their clinics rather than from a representative sample of a population (Ia, Ib, table 1) , 6,7 The former type of selection may result in an excess of families with multiple affected members among the relatives of the index case group. 8 We tested this possibility on the data contained in the Groningen study by deBlkcourt and his associates ( 1961)7 using the method suggested by Haenszel (example v ) .…”

Seronegative polyarthritis. a unified concept

“…In a Lancashire study (69) 7% of the first-degree relatives, and in a Dutch study (70) 6.4% of the first-degree relatives of probands with ankylosing spondylitis had spondylitis, compared with 0.4% and 0.3% of the two control groups. West (71) determined the expected frequency of cases within single families according to Poisson's ratio.…”

Use of the B27 test in the diagnosis of ankylosing spondylitis: a statistical evaluation

“…Prior to the discovery of the association between B27 and ankylosing spondylitis (AS), the prevalence of this disease in whites was estimated to be between 0.5 and 2.0 cases per 1,OOO (1)(2)(3)(4)(5)(6) (Table 1). The strong association of B27 and AS led some workers to believe that the B27 test could be used to screen for AS in the population and that more accurate estimates of the disease prevalence could be obtained by concentrating attention on individuals with B27 (7)(8)(9).…”