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More than 80 diseases have been identified as known or possible autoimmune conditions. They can affect a variety of body systems including the nervous system, glands, digestive tract, kidneys, lungs, blood vessels, sense organs, joints, skin and even hair.
They can range from causing no symptoms to the presence of severely debilitating symptoms. Autoimmune diseases may cause injury to a single organ or tissue type, or the immune response can cause widespread injury to multiple organs or tissues.
Common examples of recognized autoimmune diseases include:
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Rheumatoid arthritis and juvenile rheumatoid arthritis
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Type 1 diabetes and a variation called latent autoimmune diabetes of adulthood
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Hashimoto’s thyroiditis and Graves' disease
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Multiple sclerosis
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Systemic lupus erythematosus and some other forms of lupus
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Pernicious anemia
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Vitiligo
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Sjogren’s syndrome
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Alopecia areata (patchy baldness)
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Celiac disease (gluten intolerance)
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Autoimmune glomerulonephritis (kidney disease)
Less-common autoimmune diseases include:
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Addison’s disease
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Autoimmune polyglandular syndrome
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Myositis and inflammatory myopathies, including dermatomyositis
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Rare skin conditions including scleroderma, pemphigus, epidermolysis bullosa and lichen planus
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The nerve disorder Guillain-Barré syndrome
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Myasthenia gravis and other neurologic paraneoplastic syndromes, including encephalomyelitis, neuromyotonia, Lambert-Eaton myasthenic syndrome, stiff person syndrome and cerebellar degeneration
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Antiphospholipid syndrome
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Goodpasture’s syndrome
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Neuromyelitis optica
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Autoimmune inner-ear disease
Conditions in which autoimmunity may play a role include:
Conditions that have some features in common to many autoimmune diseases but are generally believed to be due to other factors include fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome. In addition, there are many immune disorders that do not involve autoimmunity, ranging from allergies to HIV/AIDS.
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