Correlation between Ulcerative Colitis and Rh Blood Groups

Winstone, Henderson and Brooke 1 did not find ulcerative colitis to be correlated with the ABO blood groups, secretor status, or the rhesus factor. Their Rh classification was, however, restricted to rhesus-positive and rhesus-negative, presumably based on the use of an anti- D serum only. When we recently examined 185 patients in whom ulcerative colitis had led to colectomy, we also did not find any particular relation to D status, but did find, considerably to our surprise, a definite correlation with the homozygous CC rhesus type. Using as controls Wiener's series of 1,071 New York Whites 2 , we obtained the results shown in Table 1.