Immunologie in de medische praktijk. XX. Orgaanspecifieke auto-immuunziekten

- 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.