Genetic association between particular HLA-DRB1 genes and severity of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) has been documented in various clinical investigations. Susceptible alleles are *0401, *0404, *0405, *0408, *0101, *1001, *1402. According to the Shared epitope hypothesis presence of these alleles were considered as poor prognostic sign. The aim was to investigate HLA-DRB1 distribution in Croatian arthritis patients. Group of 90 patients with non-specific joint arthritis, non-erosive RA and erosive RA were typed for DRB1 alleles by PCR-SSP method. Susceptible alleles were identified in 58 (64.44 %) patients. The most frequent genes were DRB1 *0101 (43.33 %), *0401 (17.77 %), *0404 (10 %). 9 out of 58 DRB1* positive patients had 2 susceptible alleles, and the rest (49 patients) had only one susceptible allele. The patients with non-specific joint arthritis and non-erosive RA will bee closely followed for more destructive disease course in DRB1* positive patients.