Hi all,
Please forgive me if there has already been a thread on this--I thought I'd seen one the other day, but I can't find it now.
I am wondering if I can ask you all about diagnosis through blood tests. I know that sometimes people with RA can be seronegative and their tests come back with a neg RA factor despite the fact that they have the disease.
If you are seronegative, are the other diagnostic blood tests also normal? I'm thinking specifically of the C-reactive protein, complete CBC, and uric acid (sorry, not sure if that is one used to diagnose RA--it was on the list of things I had done).
As always, thanks in advance for your responses!
Christina
Uric acid is used to dagnose gout - and being a woman it's really rare to get gout. Don't know why.
CCP is the big one - get that positive and it's almost assured you have RA.
Pip
Pip, thanks a lot.
Now, if the CCP is negative, does that mean I could still have the RA but it's mild?
(Thanks, by the way, for the info on gout and uric acid--they ran everything for RA, lupus, gout, Lyme's, etc, so I wasn't sure what when with what).
Christina
All of my blood tests were negative but I have early RA erosion on my x-rays. That was quite a while ago so who knows now but I was Dx'd with RA having joint swelling and pain along with fatigue, being symmetrical and the x-ray results.
Take care.
I've always been seronegative for RA (that means no rheumatoid factor? Just checking to see if I've got it right) so what made my GP alert the rheumatologist was my pain/inability to move combined with high inflammatory markers in my bloodwork. (ESR and CRP)Thanks, everyone. I just called the office to see if my blood work had come back. For the record, as far as RA is concerned, they checked the RF qualitative, the sedimentation rate (which I think measures inflammation), the C-Reactive Protein, and a complete CBC.
The nurse said, "Everything was normal." So, in their eyes, no to gout, lupus, Lyme's, RA, and whatever else they tested for.
I'd be optimistic, but I am so stiff, and my hands, wrists, and knees seem to hurt in classic RA patterns since this all came on suddenly last Monday. Since I still have all of these symptoms, I made another appointment for 10 days away (my doctor is always on vacation) to go back and see her, but I'm not sure what else she'll do since she had said to me earlier this week, "If all of these tests are normal, we can pretty much rule out RA."
But that doesn't really sound true, does it? Should I get a second opinion?
I'm almost afraid to mention anything about the "good" results to my husband, as I think he'll just take those tests as the final say and think I'm just stressed out and bringing them on with fear.
I would get a second opinion. Is your doc an RD? If not, I think you should go see one. I'm seronegative, but my blood tests were like Orion..the inflammation was through the roof. I think the ESR was over 90 and the sed rate was 25. Or something like that. I'm not sure that I have all the lingo down yet.