Jaroslav Sulitka, Michal Demeter, Rudolf Hyrdel
Autoimmune polyglandular syndromes (APS) are primarily hypofunctional, rarely hyperfunctional autoimmune disorders of several endocrine glands at the same individual. The most frequently affected organs are adrenal glands, thyroid gland, islets of Langerhans, parathyroid glands, gonads. The cause of the disease is production of antigen-specific auto-antibodies at predisposed individuals and infiltration of the affected glands by sensitised T-lymphocytes, which inhibit and destruct and exceptionally stimulate an endocrine gland - e.g. at Basedow’s disease, which is one of the components of APS. Also some nonendocrine diseases are components of APS - pernicious anaemia, allopecia, vitiligo, rheumatoid syndrome, mucocutaneous candidiasis, glomerulopathies, tubulointersticial nephritis, lupoid hepatitis, Sjögren’s disease, celiakia, sarcoidosis.