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Document ID (ISN)100765
CIS number 02-1800
ISSN - Serial title 0271-3586 - American Journal of Industrial Medicine
Year 2002
Convention or series no.
Author(s) Weston A., Ensey J., Kreiss K., Keshava C., McCanlies E.
Title Racial differences in prevalence of a supratypic HLA-genetic marker immaterial to pre-employment testing for susceptibility to chronic beryllium disease
Bibliographic information June 2002, Vol.41, No.6, p.457-465. Illus. 41 ref.
Abstract A genetic polymorphism in the human leukocyte antigen (HLA), the DPβ1 gene, is known to be associated with berylliosis. The specific disease marker is called HLA-DPβ1E69. This article examines the predictive value of a pre-employment screening programme of a beryllium materials manufacturer in which applicants are tested for HLA-DPβ1E69. Polymerase chain reaction and restriction fragment length polymorphism analyses were used to determine HLA-DPβ1E69 population frequencies in various ethnic groups. Allelic/carrier frequencies were found to be 0.21/0.33, 0.24/0.40, 0.27/0.47 and 0.38/0.59 for Caucasians, African-Americans, Hispanics and Chinese, respectively. Ranges of positive predictive values for a genetic test based on HLA-DPβ1E69 in these populations were calculated to be 8.3-14.3% for carriers with an assumed disease frequency of 5%. For high risk subgroups with assumed disease frequencies of 15%, the range of positive predictive values was found to span between 24.9-43.0%. These estimates suggest that using HLA-DPβ1E69 genotyping for pre-employment screening has a low positive predictive value, which varies little among racial groups where carrier frequencies differ significantly.
Descriptors (primary) race-linked differences; beryllium; genetic screening; individual susceptibility; berylliosis
Descriptors (secondary) pre-employment medical examinations; statistical evaluation
Document type D - Periodical articles
Country / State or ProvinceUSA
Subject(s) Occupational pathology
Broad subject area(s) Chemical safety
Browse category(ies) Inorganic substances
Pneumoconioses