This year marks the 30th anniversary of the first description of an HLA associated disease. At
the Third International Histocompatibility Workshop (IHWS) in Turin in 1967, Amiel reported
that the HLA antigen 4C (later found to be a “broad” HLA antigen including B5+ B35+ B18)
was found significantly more frequently in patients with Hodgkin's disease (5 1%) compared
to healthy individuals (27%) Cl]. The association was not a strong one (relative risk= 2.8), but
this and other findings 12, 31 led to an extensive hunt for other HLA associated diseases …