Autoimmune disease represents a group of more than 60 different chronic autoimmune diseases that affect approximately 6% of the population. Autoimmune diseases arise when ones immune system actively targets and destroys self tissue resulting in clinical disease with prime examples such as Lupus and Type 1 diabetes. The immune system is designed to protect us from foreign pathogens such as viruses and bacteria. However, during the process of generating immune cells for this purpose, as a negative consequence, self-reactive immune cells are also generated. This book aims to present the latest knowledge and insights regarding the different contributing factors and their interplay, discussions on several autoimmune diseases and their case studies, and therapeutic treatments, including stem cell, for autoimmune diseases.

The collection of essays reviews, explores, and reports state-of-the-art autoimmune diseases and their diagnostics. It provides a comprehensive presentation of autoimmune diseases, diagnostic approaches with current trends, and possible developments in health sciences. As such, it is a unique resource for medical educators, medical practitioners, and academics.

This is a comprehensive and novel text that examines key features that predispose individuals to autoimmune diseases. The first section details the basic mechanism of autoimmunity and examines immunogenetic and environmental factors in autoimmunity. The next section examines autoimmune thyroid disease. The third section takes a look at Type 1 diabetes mellitus. In the final section, authors explain other autoimmune endocrinopathies.

Autoimmune Diseases: New Insights for the Healthcare Professional: 2013 Edition is a ScholarlyEditions™ book that delivers timely, authoritative, and comprehensive information about Genetics. The editors have built Autoimmune Diseases: New Insights for the Healthcare Professional: 2013 Edition on the vast information databases of ScholarlyNews.™ You can expect the information about Genetics in this book to be deeper than what you can access anywhere else, as well as consistently reliable, authoritative, informed, and relevant. The content of Autoimmune Diseases: New Insights for the Healthcare Professional: 2013 Edition has been produced by the world’s leading scientists, engineers, analysts, research institutions, and companies. All of the content is from peer-reviewed sources, and all of it is written, assembled, and edited by the editors at ScholarlyEditions™ and available exclusively from us. You now have a source you can cite with authority, confidence, and credibility. More information is available at http://www.ScholarlyEditions.com/.

Remarkable advances have been made in the pathogenesis of autoimmunity, such as with bone marrow transplantation, which is becoming a powerful strategy in treating certain life-threatening diseases. The Molecular Pathology of Autoimmune Diseases is a concise and centralized resource for information on the topic, with a special focus on the molecula

This book focuses on conveying autoimmune disease expertise to gynecologists and other clinicians, allowing them to approach the treatment of each disease in a pragmatic manner. Each chapter reviews the current literature on treatments for autoimmune diseases, especially under special circumstances like pregnancy; rating disease severity; and providing practical guidelines based on the current state of knowledge. How autoimmune diseases affect fertility, and how to best prepare patients with these diseases for pregnancy, is also addressed. Unfortunately the current literature does not provide effective guidelines. This book addresses that shortcoming, and will help clinicians to implement appropriate treatments, while also outlining possible alternatives in order to provide effective treatment for women living with autoimmune diseases. It also explores important issues concerning autoimmune diseases in women such as: lupus nephritis, vasculitis, Sjogren’s syndrome, anti phospholipid syndrome and systemic sclerosis, and their potential effects on unborn children. Given its scope, the book offers a valuable reference guide for Practicing Clinicians, Rheumatologists and Gynecologists, among others.

Autoimmune thyroid diseases (AITD) are T cell-mediated organ-specific autoimmune disorders resulting from an immune dysregulation leading to a thyroid immune attack (Antonelli and Benvenga). Graves’ disease and Hashimoto’s thyroiditis are the two main clinical presentations of AITD, and their clinical hallmarks are thyrotoxicosis and hypothyroidism, respectively. In many cases, AITD may be associated in the same patient with other organ-specific autoimmune attacks (such as in the case of type II autoimmune polyglandular syndrome, or type I diabetes, etc). Furthermore, AITD and thyroid function abnormalities have been frequently described in patients with systemic rheumatologic autoimmune diseases. Conversely, patients affected with the above mentioned autoimmune disorders are more frequently affected by AITD. In this Research Topic, constituted by nineteen papers, we review and discuss new evidence about the association of other autoimmune diseases in patients with AITD. Among other organ-specific autoimmune disorders, the associations of AITD with chronic autoimmune gastritis (Cellini et al.), vitiligo (Baldini E et al.), lichen (Guarneri et al.), psoriasis (Ruffilli et al.), myasthenia gravis (Lopomo and Berrih-Aknin) and glomerulopathies (Santoro et al.) have been treated. Also the associations of AITD, in systemic autoimmune diseases have been treated (as Sjögren’s syndrome, Baldini C et al.; systemic sclerosis, Fallahi et al.; systemic lupus erythematosus, Ferrari et al.; Antiphospholipid syndrome, Versini; sarcoidosis, Fazzi et al.; the autoimmune/inflammatory syndrome induced by adjuvants, Watad et al.; rheumatoid arthritis, Bliddal et al.; Hepatitis C Virus and mixed cryoglobulinemia, Ferri et al.; and, psoriathic arthritis, Ruffilli et al.). Furthermore peculiar aspects associated with post partum thyroiditis have been reviewed too (Di Bari et al., Le Donne et al.). The exact pathogenetic mechanisms underlying the above reported associations are not completely known. It has been hypothesized that the influence of genetic (Coppedè), and environmental factors (Antonelli and Benvenga), could lead to the onset of autoimmune phenomena in different organs in the same subject, characterized by predominance of a Th1 immune pattern at the beginning, and in the active phase of these disorders. In conclusion, an association of other autoimmune diseases in patients with thyroid autoimmunity has been shown, and this Research Topic provides an extensive update of the literature, and suggests interesting points for new investigations.

Autoimmune Diseases: New Insights for the Healthcare Professional: 2011 Edition is a ScholarlyEditions™ eBook that delivers timely, authoritative, and comprehensive information about Autoimmune Diseases. The editors have built Autoimmune Diseases: New Insights for the Healthcare Professional: 2011 Edition on the vast information databases of ScholarlyNews.™ You can expect the information about Autoimmune Diseases in this eBook to be deeper than what you can access anywhere else, as well as consistently reliable, authoritative, informed, and relevant. The content of Autoimmune Diseases: New Insights for the Healthcare Professional: 2011 Edition has been produced by the world’s leading scientists, engineers, analysts, research institutions, and companies. All of the content is from peer-reviewed sources, and all of it is written, assembled, and edited by the editors at ScholarlyEditions™ and available exclusively from us. You now have a source you can cite with authority, confidence, and credibility. More information is available at http://www.ScholarlyEditions.com/.

A complete guide to understanding the mysterious and often difficult-to-pinpoint disorders of the immune system--and finding the keys to diagnosis, treatment, and recovery. An estimated fifty million people suffer from symptoms including fatigue, joint pains, depression, or heart palpitations — signs that the immune system has turned on itself, causing conditions such as thyroid disease, hepatitis, or multiple sclerosis. And while doctors may prescribe treatments to relieve these surface ailments, when asked about the life-long health implications of an autoimmune condition, they often just shrug their shoulders. Yet much like cancer, having one autoimmune disease puts you at high risk for developing another, and understanding the underlying immune process can reverse a patients approach to a dysfunction--for the author, it changed the way she ate, the vitamins and supplements she took, and the types of doctors she visited. Living Well with Autoimmune Disease is the first book that goes beyond the conventional treatments by showing you how to work on your underlying autoimmune dysfunction with natural and alternative therapies.