“…In addition, regardless of sex, seasonality in those diagnosed over the age of 10 was significant in the absence of the DQ2/DQ8 genotype (n=1257; χ 2 =27.2, p<0.001) but only borderline in carriers of DQ2/DQ8 (n=418; χ 2 =7.5, p=0.024; not shown). Furthermore, we com- pared the seasonal pattern in patients carrying susceptible HLA-DQ genotypes other than DQ2/DQ8 (as identified in the Belgian population) [18] with that of patients with a protective, rare or neutral genotype (see Methods for genotype classification) [18]. In both groups a significant seasonality was found (susceptible genotypes other than DQ2/DQ8: n=538, χ 2 =15.8, p<0.001; protective/rare/neutral HLA-DQ genotypes: n=719, χ 2 =14.1, p<0.001; not shown).…”