Background: Psoriatic arthritis is a type of arthritis that can often affect some patients who suffer from psoriasis. Approximately 40-50% of individuals with psoriatic arthritis have the HLA-B27 genotype

Objective: To investigate whether we could confirm the role of HLA-B27 alleles and psoriatic arthritis in Iraqi Arab Muslims patients.

Method: A cross sectional case control comparative study included thirty Iraqi Arab Muslims who had psoriatic arthritis that consulted the Dermatological and Rheumatological Department in AL-Kindy Teaching Hospital from November 2014 to June 2015. HLA-genotyping for HLA-B27 were assessed. A control group consisted of fifty-one healthy volunteers among the staff of Al-Kindy College of Medicine that did not have psoriatic arthritis or family history of psoriasis. HLA-B*27allele was done by using an Exicycler TM 96 Real-time Quantitative Thermal Block (Bioneer, Daejeon, Korea) and Accupower, HLA-B27 real-time PCR kit (Bioneer, Daejeon , Korea)

Results: Plaque type psoriasis is more common than other types of psoriasis (66% versus 34%). There is no association between psoriatic arthritis and HLA-B27 with p-value of 0.1197 and Odds ratio (confidence interval) of 2.9375 (0.755-11.415).

Conclusions: HLA B*27 is not associated with psoriatic arthritis in Iraqi Arab Muslims patients.