Since the discovery of rheumatoid factor by Waaler in the 1940s, there has been continuous progress in the immunodiagnostics of rheumatic diseases. Discovery of the anti-cyclic citrullinated peptide antibodies (aCCP) has led to significant improvement in diagnostics of early arthritis. Nevertheless, many methods and diagnostic procedures still require validation and standardization. It seems that proteomics-based methods like microarrays or antigen chips may become the future of immunodiagnostics of rheumatic conditions as they allow high level of multiplication, standardization and automation of analysis and are best suited for computer-assisted data interpretation.