What are autoimmune diseases?
What are autoantibodies?
What is an organ-specific autoimmune disease?
What is a systemic autoimmune disease?
What causes autoimmunity?
Why do we see an increase in the incidence of autoimmune disorders?
How are autoimmune diseases diagnosed?
How are autoimmune diseases treated?
What are autoimmune diseases?
Autoimmune diseases affect millions of people. These disorders occur when the immune system malfunctions. If the body's immune system falsely recognises your body's own cells as invaders and attack them, there is an autoimmune reaction. This reaction produces identifiable autoantibodies that are more or less typical for specific diseases. This "friendly fire" can affect almost every part of the body. Sometimes it can also affect many parts of the body at once. This is called autoimmunity meaning self-immunity.
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What are autoantibodies?
Autoantibodies are blood proteins directed against the body's own parts. People suffering from rheumatoid arthritis or lupus for example, often have these autoantibodies in their blood. But not all people with these diseases have these autoantibodies and some people without autoimmune diseases do have them. Autoantibodies can be detected with blood tests.
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What is an organ-specific autoimmune disease?
Autoimmunity can affect almost any organ or body system. If just one organ is affected we speak about an organ-specific autoimmune disorder. An example of an organ-specific disorder is autoimmune thyroiditis, in which the immune system attacks and destroys the hormone-producing thyroid gland. Other examples include celiac disease, diabetes mellitus type 1, autoimmune forms of hepatitis and several skin diseases.
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What is a systemic autoimmune disease?
If autoantibodies react with proteins and nucleic acids present in almost every cell in the body we speak about systemic autoimmune diseases. Systemic autoimmune diseases belong to the group of rheumatic disorders or connective tissue disorders, such as rheumatoid arthritis (RA) or systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE).
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What causes autoimmunity?
It is still unknown why the immune system attacks some parts of the body like germs. Most scientists think that a genetic predisposition and environmental changes are involved. This means that if you have a certain genetic predisposition you may be at higher risk to get an autoimmune disease. Scientists also think that you will only get the disease if something around you turns on your immune systems. Sun, drugs, infections may be included. You can't catch an autoimmune disease from another person.
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Why do we see an increase in the incidence of autoimmune disorders?
The increase in the incidence of autoimmune disorders is due to several things:
- an increasing number of people are recognising autoimmune disorders as a major health problem
- the availability of better tools for the identification of these disorders
- the growing knowledge about the mechanisms behind the autoimmune process that helps to identify the group of chronic disorders much earlier than before.
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How are autoimmune diseases diagnosed?
Often the symptoms vary widely at first and there is no clear pattern of symptoms available which is typical for a certain disease. This is the reason why diagnosing autoimmune disorders can be hard. But with time, a diagnosis can be made by considering different aspects:
- Medica history: The doctor will ask you about the symptoms and how long you have had them. They can be a starting point for your doctor although the symptoms may not point to one disease.
- Physical exam: The doctor will check for any signs during the exam (e.g., swollen lymph nodes, inflamed joints etc.).
- Medical tests: Doctors may test your blood for autoantibodies. Autoantibodies are blood proteins directed against the body's own parts. People suffering from rheumatoid arthritis or lupus for example, often have these autoantibodies in their blood. But not all people with these diseases have these autoantibodies and some people without autoimmune diseases do have them. So blood tests alone may not always help. To be more sure of a diagnosis, the symptoms as well as the autoantibodies a patient shows should always be considered.
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How are autoimmune diseases treated?
As autoimmune diseases take many forms there are also many different treatments for them. Generally, treatments have one of three goals:
- Relieving symptoms
- Preserving organ function
- Targeting disease mechanisms (immunosuppressants)
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