The predictive significance of autoantibodies in organ-specific autoimmune diseases.

Many organ-specific autoimmune diseases are preceded by a long pre-clinical phase, and several longitudinal cohort studies have shown that patients may carry autoantibodies many years before they manifest clinical symptoms. Detecting these antibodies in serum has been shown to have strong predictive value, depending on the particular autoantibody, test method, and disease at issue. This review examines the predictive value of various autoantibodies that are found in organ-specific autoimmune diseases, such as primary biliary cirrhosis, Addison's disease, Hashimoto's thyroiditis, type-1 diabetes, celiac disease, and Crohn's disease.