[New antibodies in diagnostics]

Rheumatologists were pivotal in the development of using autoantibodies to diagnose chronic inflammatory diseases. Rheumatoid factors were already discovered in 1940 and antinuclear antibodies and their target structures in the 1950s and 1960s. Even though now a vast array of autoantibodies can be routinely measured, we still need more diagnostic markers for chronic inflammatory diseases. Nowadays novel autoantibodies can be easily discovered using new technologies which are described in this article, Therefore we can expect, that new diagnostic autoantibodies will be available soon.