[Immunology in medical practice. XX. Organ specific autoimmune diseases]

Organ specific autoimmune diseases are predominantly diseases of the endocrine glands and involve amongst others the thyroid (Hashimoto's disease, primary myxoedema, Graves' disease), the islets of Langerhans (type I diabetes mellitus) and the adrenals (Addison's disease). Over the past fifty years the knowledge on the pathogenesis of these diseases has considerably increased, leading to a large number of newly developed diagnostic tools, particularly determination of autoantibodies. Most of these autoimmune diseases have a (long) subclinical latency period. During this latency period a reliable prediction of later clinical manifestation is feasible. Preventive interventions during the latency period to correct underlying abnormalities of the target endocrine gland and/or the immune system are currently being tested in experimental animal models.