Why is it challenging for clinicians to narrow down the autoimmune disorder at play and how is it diagnosed in the end?

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

It can be challenging for clinicians to narrow down the autoimmune disorder at play due to the large number of options, variability of symptoms, and the fact that signs and symptoms can take a long time to fully develop and may change over time. Diagnosis often involves detecting self-reactive immune system cells and/or autoantibodies, which are antibodies that bind to self-tissues. Depending on the suspected disorder, the clinician may also order other hematological tests (blood tests) that look for specific inflammation and metabolic factors. An autoimmune disorder is rarely definitively diagnosed using a single test; instead, a collection of tests and careful assessment of signs and symptoms are required. Some autoimmune disorders have scoring criteria to help clinicians make a diagnosis. As a generic example, if the patient met five out of a dozen criteria for a particular disorder, then he or she might have an 85 percent likelihood of being affected by it, based on historical data. Typically, the more criteria a patient meets in such a scoring system, the greater the chance that the diagnosis is accurate.