In more than 95% of patients with systemic sclerosis and in about 60% of patients suffering from idiopathic inflammatory myopathies autoantibodies directed at different nuclear or cytoplasmic antigens can be detected with different methods. Scleroderma-associated autoantibodies can be visualized as antinuclear antibodies (ANA) by immunofluorescence assays using cultured monolayer cells. In case of a negative ANA result the diagnosis of systemic sclerosis is unlikely. In individual patients the different autoantibodies (against DNA topoisomerase I (Scl-70), centromeric antigens, fibrillarin, To (Th), RNA polymerases, NOR-90, U1-nRNP, PM-Scl, Ku) are mutually exclusive. They can be detected early in the course of diseases, most often are persistent, and are closely associated with immunogenetic markers. They are characteristic for distinct subsets of patients homogeneous in clinical manifestations as well as in disease outcome. Myositis-associated autoantibodies are directed to nuclear (about 60% of myositis patients; PM-Scl, Mi-2) or cytoplasmic antigens (about 35-40%; Jo-1 and other aminoacyl-tRNA-synthetases, signal recognition particle (SRP), KJ and others) and likewise are related to distinct clinical, prognostic, and immunogenetic traits leading to the description of characteristic antibody-based syndromes. Based on published results and on our own investigations, the diagnostic potential of scleroderma- and myositis-associated antibodies is evaluated and a new classification of systematic myositic and sclerodermatous disease is proposed.