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2007-08-01 13:25:34 · 4 answers · asked by janjoedel2000 2 in Science & Mathematics Medicine

4 answers

It is a blood test to see if you have inflammation
http://www.medicinenet.com/sedimentation_rate/article.htm for details

2007-08-01 13:37:18 · answer #1 · answered by Rich Z 7 · 1 0

It isn't very useful overall, but is a decent screen to help exclude giant cell arteritis, or as a way to confirm, if not absolutely, a suspicion of polymyalgia rheumatica. It's also cheap and easy if you're interested as a surrogate marker for disease activity when followed serially in other rheumatologic diseases. Of course, it's not so good as say an anti-double-stranded-DNA in helping with the differential diagnosis, but those tests are not so specific as a lot of people think, either.

2007-08-01 14:41:44 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 1 0

docs often order it b/c they aren't current on their literature (i.e. haven't read a medical journal in the last 15-20 years). there are a number of more specific tests which can be ordered, like ana's, or rheumatoid arthritis panels, or other tests checking for inflammatory processes, but an ESR (sed rate) is a starting point if you have absolutely NO CLUE as to what you're looking for.

2007-08-01 13:55:58 · answer #3 · answered by bad guppy 5 · 1 0

The erythrocyte sedimentation rate (a.k.a. ERS, or ESR-Wintrobe) is used to detect non-specific inflammation (also see C-reactive protein).

I have not seen it ordered very often in either the emergency or ICU settings as the ESR test has largely been replaced with more specific biomarkers, though high values may indicate pathology (e.g. rheumatoid arthritis, giant cell arteritis).

For more detail, see
http://www.api-pt.com/pdfs/2006Bcoag.pdf

2007-08-01 13:43:12 · answer #4 · answered by Aiden 4 · 1 0

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