Table 1.
Characteristics of studies included in the meta-analysis
| Study: first author, year of publication | Ethnicity | No. of PV patients (M/F), age in years | No. of controls (M/F), age in years | Diagnostic criteria of PV | No. of DRB1 alleles studied | HLA genotyping method | Data form |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ahmed, 19909 | Ashkenazi Jewish | 26 (–/–), ND | 59 (–/–), ND | Presence and biopsy | 7 | Lymphocyte microcytotoxicity assay and cDNA probes | AF and AC |
| Ahmed, 199130 | Non-Jewish caucasian | 25 (–/–), ND | 1000 (–/–), ND | Presence, DIF and IIF | 3 | Lymphocyte microcytotoxicity assay, RFLP and cDNA probes | AF and AC |
| Niizeki, 199414 | Japanese | 32 (–/–), ND | 45 (–/–), ND | Immunoblot assay | 8 | PCR-RFLP | PF and PC |
| Lombardi, 199629 | Italian non-Jewish | 33 (–/–), ND | 102 (–/–), ND | Clinical, histological and immunopathological | 10 | PCR-SSOP | PF and PC |
| Carcassi, 199632 | Sardinian and Italian | S: 16 (–/–), ND; I: 16 (–/–), ND | S: 296 (–/–), ND; I: 510 (–/–), ND | Clinical, histological and immunopathological | S: 3; I: 4 | Mono-oligospecific alloantisera, RFLP and cDNA probes | AC, AF and PC, PF |
| Delgado, 199712 | Pakistani and non-Jewish European | P: 19 (–/–), ND; E: 19 (–/–), ND | P: 13 (–/–), ND; E: 248 (–/–), ND | Presence and IIF | P: 9; E: 9 | PCR-SSOP | AC and AF |
| Lee, 199817 | Korean | 15 (–/–), ND | 100 (–/–), ND | Clinical, histological and immunopathological; some immunoblot assays | 13 | PCR-SSP | PF and PC |
| Gonzalez-Escribano, 199816 | Spanish caucasian | 26 (10/16), ND | 200 (–/–), ND | DIF | 12 | PCR-SSOP | PF and PC |
| Miyagawa, 19998 | Japanese | 36 (–/–), ND | 525 (–/–), ND | Histopathological, DIF and IIF | 4 | PCR-RFLP | PF and PC |
| Lombardi, 199915 | Italian caucasian | 61 (–/–), ND | 128 (–/–), ND | Clinical, histopathological and DIF | 12 | PCR-SSP | AC and AF |
| Loiseau, 200013 | French (caucasian, Asian and North African) | 37 (16/21), 50·5 ± 14 | 106 (–/–), ND | Clinical, histological, DIF and IIF | 3 | PCR-SSOP | AC and AF |
| Zhou, 200310 | Chinese | 61 (35/26), 51·48 ± 15·36 | 57 (35/22), 53·17 ± 15·93 | Clinical, histopathological and DIF | 14 | PCR-SSP | AC and AF |
| Veldman, 200431 | German | 14 (–/–), ND | 11 (–/–), ND | Histopathological, DIF and IIF | 9 | PCR/ELPHA | AC, AF and PC, PF |
| Geng, 200528 | Chinese | 27 (11/16), (19–69) | 262 (–/–), ND | Clinical, histopathological and immunopathological | 13 | PCR-SSP | AC and AF |
| Sáenz-Cantele, 200733 | Venezuelan | 49 (–/–), ND | 101 (34/67), 36 ± 12 | Clinical, histological and DIF | 12 | PCR and protocols, primer pairs and probes | AF and AC |
| Shams, 200934 | Iranian non-Jewish | 52 (–/–), ND | 180 (–/–), ND | Clinical, histological and DIF | 13 | PCR-SSP | AC and AF |
| Saha, 201027 | Caucasian European and Indo-Asian | E: 96 (–/–), ND; IA: 57 (–/–), ND | E: 100 (–/–), ND; IA: 59 (–/–), ND | ND | 5 | PCR-SSP | AC and AF |
| Tunca, 201035 | Turkish | 25 (14/11), (20–69) | 113 (65/48), ND | Clinical, histopathological and immunofluorescence microscopy | 15 | PCR-SSP | PF and PC |
PV, pemphigus vulgaris; HLA, human leucocyte antigen; ND, not described; DIF, direct immunofluorescence; IIF, indirect immunofluorescence; RFLP, restriction fragment length polymorphism analysis; PCR, polymerase chain reaction; SSOP, sequence-specific oligonucleotide probes; SSP, sequence-specific primers; (–/–), no data mentioned in the included studies; ELPHA, enzyme-linked probe-hybridization assay; S, Sardinian; I, Italian; P, Pakistani; E, European; IA, Indo-Asian; AC, allele counts; AF, allele frequencies; PC, phenotype counts; PF, phenotype frequencies.