Association between ankylosing spondylitis and a 9.2 kb Pvu II class I HLA DNA restriction fragment: A reassessment

Recently, McDanial, et al (Arthritis Rheum 1987;30:894) reported a statistically significant association between ankylosing spondylitis (AS) and the presence of Pvu II digested genomic DNA of a 9.2 kB restriction fragment hybridizing with an HLA-B7 cDNA probe. The fragment was found in 35 of 48 unrelated HLA-B27+ Caucasian patients with primary AS and in 25 of 107 controls. We report finding this restriction fragment in only 10 of 33 such patients and in 17 of 41 controls. We are thus unable to confirm an association between AS and the restriction fragment identified by McDanial, et al.