Chronic daily headache in Brazil: a nationwide population-based study

The objectives of this study were to estimate the 1-year prevalence of chronic daily headache (CDH) and the degree of the association of CDH with some sociodemographic characteristics of the adult population of Brazil. This was a cross-sectional, population-based study. We conducted telephone interviews with 3848 people, aged 18-79 years, randomly selected from the 27 States of Brazil. The degree of the association was calculated through prevalence ratios, adjusted with Poisson regression by gender, age and some sociodemographic factors. The estimated 1-year gender- and age-adjusted prevalence of CDH was 6.9%. CDH was 2.4 times more prevalent in women, 1.72 times more in unemployed, 1.63 times more in subjects with high household income and two times greater in those who did not exercise. The overall prevalence of CDH in Brazil is high. CDH is significantly more prevalent in women, the unemployed, subjects with higher income, and in those who do not exercise.

Systemic lupus erythematosus: Association with KIR and SLC11A1 polymorphisms, ethnic predisposition and influence in clinical manifestations at onset revealed by ancestry genetic markers in an urban Brazilian population

Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is an autoimmune disorder of the connective tissue with a wide and heterogeneous spectrum of manifestations, with renal and neurological involvement usually related to worse prognosis. SLE more frequently affects females of reproductive age, and a high prevalence and renal manifestation seem to be associated with non-European ethnicity. The present study aims to investigate candidate loci to SLE predisposition and evaluate the influence of ethnic ancestry in the disease risk and clinical phenotypic heterogeneity of lupus at onset. Samples represented by 111 patients and 345 controls, originated from the city of Belem, located in the Northern Region of Brazil, were investigated for polymorphisms in HLA-G, HLA-C, SLC11A1, MTHFR, CASP8 and 15 KIR genes, in addition to 89 Amerindian samples genotyped for SLC11A1. We also investigated 48 insertion/deletion ancestry markers to characterize individual African, European and Amerindian ancestry proportions in the samples. Predisposition to SLE was associated with GTGT deletion at the SLC11A1 3`UTR, presence of KIR2DS2 +/KIR2DS5 +/KIR3DS1 + profile, increased number of stimulatory KIR genes, and European and Amerindian ancestries. The ancestry analysis ruled out ethnic differences between controls and patients as the source of the observed associations. Moreover, the African ancestry was associated with renal manifestations. Lupus (2011) 20, 265-273.

HLA-DRB1*1501 tagging rs3135388 polymorphism is not associated with neuromyelitis optica

Background: Association of the HLA-DRB1*1501 allele with multiple sclerosis is well established, but its association with neuromyelitis optica has only been evaluated in small populations. Methods: We performed a case-control genetic association study to evaluate the association of HLA-DRB1*1501 with neuromyelitis optica. The single nucleotide polymorphism rs3135388, which tags HLA-DRB1*1501, was genotyped in 164 patients with neuromyelitis optica, 220 patients with multiple sclerosis and 959 controls matched for age, gender and ethnicity. Genotyping for rs3135388 was performed by Taqman-based 5` nuclease assay. Results: Rs3135388*A was positively associated with multiple sclerosis (OR = 3.93; 95% CI = 2.58-5.97, p = 1.18 x 10(-09)) but negatively associated with NMO (OR = 0.57; 95% CI = 0.36-0.91, p = 0.01). Conclusions: Multiple sclerosis and neuromyelitis optica differ in their associations with DRB1*1501.