This is in agreement with the findings of a Korean study of RA, in which the 149 RA cases and controls were compared and no association with the intron B Bcl1 polymorphism was found with the RA group as a whole, or on stratification for disease severity.15 Although less well powered to look at, we have also stratified our patient cohort by parameters of disease severity. This evidence concerns the gene CCND1 and rheumatoid arthritis.