ESR results | Arthritis Information

 

My  last   ESR  blood  result  was   67   and  my consultant   was  not  too  pleased  he  said it  was  high  hence  the  MTX    starting soon  

Does   anyone  here    find out there  ESR  blood  results   and if so   do  you think   67  is a  cause  of  concern  is  67  considered  high to  you   ?

gilly39326.5912615741I've just had a look at my test results and normal range (for this particular county) is 3 - 15.... so I'd say 67 was somewhat high! You should ask for a copy of all your blood results and keep them in a folder so that you can refer to them yourself.Yep, 67 is considered high, they are trying to get it under 15.

My ESR has always been high...82 was the highest.

It isn't a cause for concern in anyway other than showing them how high you inflammation levels are in your body at present which means there is work to do by the medication in reducing it.

I always get a copy of my ESR and my c reactive protein results so then I can watch it go up and down myself ESR is a measurement of your sedimentation rate, which is an indication
of the amount of inflammation in your body. A high sed rate means
there's more inflammation (even if you can't see or feel it) so your doctor
wants you to take mtx to help get the inflammation down and prevent
damage.



From http://www.patient.co.uk/showdoc/27000448/

Erythrocyte Sedimentation Rate (ESR)
A blood sample is taken and put in a tube that contains a chemical to
stop the blood from clotting. The tube is left to stand upright. The red
blood cells (erythrocytes) gradually fall to the bottom of the tube (as a
'sediment'). The clear liquid plasma is left at the top. The ESR measures
the rate at which the red blood cells separate from the plasma and fall to
the bottom of a test tube. The rate is measured in millimetres per hour
(mm/hr). This is easy to measure as there will be a number of millimetres
of clear liquid at the top of the red blood after one hour.

If certain proteins cover red cells, these will stick to each other and cause
the red cells to fall more quickly. So, a high ESR indicates that you have
some inflammation, somewhere in the body.
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