Autoimmune diseases (AIDs) are a heterogeneous group [1–13] with different phenotypes (organ-specific vs. systemic or non-organ specific) [14] and an estimated world prevalence of 3–9.4% [14–17]. This represents a significant burden on social and medical resources, with direct and indirect costs and impact on quality of life [3–5,18]. The ability to predict these diseases in a pre-symptomatic stage or to predict their evolution would represent an important step towards primary, secondary and tertiary prevention.
