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Several forms of arthritis and rheumatism can sometimes complicate leprosy. However, its presentation as an acute onset arthritis is unusual. We report two adult male naïve patients who presented to our rheumatology outpatient clinic with acute onset inflammatory polyarthritis, skin rash and mild sensory neurodeficit. Borderline lepromatous leprosy (in type I lepra reaction) was diagnosed. We also refer to 19 case records of Hansen arthritis in the clinic database (1998–2007) from approximately 35,000 patients and a community study to highlight the missed diagnosis of Hansen's disease and its unusual association with rheumatoid arthritis. In countries like India where leprosy is endemic, this disease also merits attention in rheumatology clinics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Association of HLA and diseases is well known. Several population studies are available suggesting evidence of association of HLAs in more than 40 diseases. HLA found across various populations vary widely. Some of the reasons attributed for such variation are occurrence of social stratification based on geography, language and religion, consequences of founder effect, racial admixture or selection pressure due to environmental factors. Hence certain HLA alleles that are predominantly associated with disease susceptibility or resistance in one population may or may not show any association in other populations for the same disease. Despite of these limitations, HLA associations are widely studied across the populations worldwide and are found to be important in prediction of disease susceptibility, resistance and of evolutionary maintenance of genetic diversity. This review consolidates the HLA data on some prominent autoimmune and infectious diseases among various ethnic groups and attempts to pinpoint differences in Indian and other population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Correlating phenotypes with genotypes remains the major postgenomic challenge. Attemptsto correlate phenotype characteristics associated with ethnicity, geographical divisions, or diseases to genotypeshave had limited success. This means that current approaches for identifying phenotypes associated with haplotypesmay be inadequate.We hypothesize that a human phenome based on Ayurveda could provide an appropriate approach.Specifically, there could be a genetic basis for the three major constitutions () described inAyurveda. Theclassification is based on differences in physical, physiological, and psychologics characteristicsand is independent of racial, ethnic, or geographical considerations. It may provide an appropriatemeans of classifying phenotypes to be considered collectively for genotyping.As a pilot study to test the hypothesis, we evaluated 76 subjects both for theirand humanleucocyte antigen (HLA) DRB1 types. The genomic DNA was extracted using a standard protocol. Subsequently,HLA DRB1 typing was done by low-resolution polymerase chain reaction sequence specific primersand oligonucleotide probes.We observed a reasonable correlation between HLA type andtype. The complete absenceof the HLA DRB1*02 allele in the Vataand of HLA DRB1*13 in thetype are significant, withX2 = 4.715 and<0.05. HLA DRB1*10 had higher allele frequency in thetype than in theand Vata types.Ayurveda classifies the whole human population in three major constitutions asand their possible combinations. Their homologous relation to human genetic structure needs to be studiedfor validation. If validated, our hypothesis would have far reaching implications for pharmacogenomics,modern genetics, human health, and Ayurveda. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]