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An outbreak of infection with Salmonella typhi murium occurred in southern Sweden in the summer of 1974. About 330 persons were infected; 91 were hospitalized. 13 of the 91 patients (9 men and 4 women) had symptoms of aseptical polyarthritis. The 13 patients with arthritis were HLA typed with a standard microlymphocytotoxicity test. 13 salmonellosis patients from the same epidemic but without arthritis and 446 healthy blood donors served as controls. Nine (69%) of the 13 patients with arthritis had HLA-B27 compared to 1 (8%) of the control patients and 44 (10%) of the blood donors. The observed association between HLA antigen B27 and reactive arthropathy following salmonella infection could be due to a function of a disease predisposing gene closely linked to HLA-B27.

During the years 1968--1976, 115 nondiabetic primary cadaveric transplantations were performed in southern Sweden. For 95 of these patients there was an observation period of at least one year. 32% of these patients had never received a blood transfusion. These recipients had an lower one year graft survival (33%) than those who had received one or more transfusions (48%). Patients who had received more than five transfusions did not show a higher graft survival than other transfused kidney recipients. Presence of cytotoxic antibodies also decreased the one year graft survival both in the transfused and not transfused patient groups.