The revised criteria for the classification of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) were formulated from a computerized analysis of 262 contemporary, consecutively studied patients with RA and 262 control subjects with From the Rheumatoid Arthritis Criteria Subcommittee of the Diagnostic and Therapeutic Criteria Committee of the American Rheumatism Association.

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We examined the association of individual HLA genes with rheumatoid arthritis (RA), using oligonucleotide probes that identified both DRCassociated and non-DR4-associated genes. Two distinct HLA-DRP alleles (Dw4 and Dw14) were found in DR4+ RA patients compared with controls (Dw4 50% versus 17%; Dw14 35 % versus 5 % ; total DR4 73 % versus 30 % ) , indicating that these 2 alleles are independent susceptibility genes. Remarkably, the majority of the DR4-RA patients also demonstrated a linear DNA sequence, apparently "shuffled" between different susceptibility alleles, identified with an oligonucleotide probe to a key portion of the Dw14 gene.The etiology of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is multifactorial, involving both genetic and nongenetic