Would CLSI M53-A have helped in the diagnosis of HIV in Canada?
Although there is a high quality of HIV testing across Canada, introduction of the M53-A guideline would further improve the ability of laboratories to diagnose HIV-1 acute and HIV-2 infection.
HLA class II markers confer genetic susceptibility to Sjögren's syndrome. The association between HLA and SS is restricted to patients with anti-SSA and/or anti-SSB antibodies; HLA is not associated with SS in patients without these autoantibodies. The absence of a difference in disease severity between groups 2 and 3, as well as the restricted association of HLA-DRB1*03 in group 3, strongly suggest that HLA alleles predispose to autoantibody secretion, without being associated with clinical outcome. HLA class II phenotype might support epitope spreading: HLA-DR15 favors anti-SSA synthesis, whereas HLA-DR3 is associated with both anti-SSA and anti-SSB production.