The lack of relationship between acetylator phenotype and idiopathic systemic lupus erythematosus in a South-east Asian population: a study of Indians, Malays and Malaysian Chinese.
 An association of idiopathic systemic lupus erythematosus (ISLE) with genetically determined N-acetylation polymorphism has been suspected from previous studies, mainly on Caucasian populations in which there is an approximate incidence of 50% of slow and rapid acetylators.
 The present study is of the incidence of ISLE and acetylator status in a mixed population of Malaysia.
 The results did not support an association between ISLE and acetylator status: the frequencies of slow acetylators in the ISLE patients who were Malaysian Chinese and Malay were 13 and 38% respectively.
 This did not differ significantly from the respective healthy groups (20 and 29%).
 The small number of Indians in the survey did not allow a valid comparison, but the figures did suggest a lack of association between ISLE and acetylator status.
