What is CRP?

[knitmaster]

hello, I`m knew to the forum. I was diagnosed with GCA 18 months ago starting on 60mg prednisolone. Recently I got down to 3mg but after a blood test was told to go up to 5mg because the CRP reading was up and causing concern. Does anyone know what this is?

[SheffieldJane]

It measures the inflammation levels in your blood. For more science, one of the really clever girls will be along.

[knitmaster in reply to SheffieldJane]

Thanks for your reply. You get all these initials thrown at you and you haven`t a clue what they mean!! My CRP has gone up to 21 - the numbers don`t mean a lot either!

[HeronNS]

CRP measures inflammation levels, but is affected by all sorts of things. I'm a little puzzled why, if you had no symptoms, you were told to go from 3 mg to 5 mg. Was there some concern that your adrenal function needed a bit of support and they wanted to slow down your taper to give the adrenal glands more time to recover and supply sufficient cortisol? I don't think this would affect the CRP result, however. In the presence of symptoms a larger increase would have been warranted.

[knitmaster in reply to HeronNS]

Thanks for your reply. I had been having very slight head pain. But I think I probably came down from 5mg to quickly. The main doctor at the hospital told me to stay on 5mg for about 12 months, but the next doctor I saw said I could start reducing after 2 months. So I`m hoping that if I stay on 5mg for longer the inflammation will settle down. The CRP reading had gone up from 6 to 21 which worried me a bit not knowing what it was!!

[Hidden in reply to knitmaster]

If you had the head pain and raised crp I am not surprised they increased it. At 18months in the gca is liky to be still active. I would ask for anther test to see if its still up in a few weeks. But I have got to say the first Dr seems to have a more sensible approach to tapering.

[HeronNS in reply to knitmaster]

Ah, in the context it makes sense then. It is possible that you might need a little more if 5 mg was the last dose where you felt well, but give it a few days.

Were you tapering by 1 mg or half mg? Most of us find a half mg taper (.5 mg) easier to manage once below 10 mg.

Additionally, if the 5 mg is not enough to control the head pain (that really should be gone if you are in treatment for GCA) please check with your doctor that a slightly higher dose be tried.

[PMRpro Ambassador]

CRP is c-reactive protein, a substance produced by the liver in response to the presence of inflammation in the body and which is raised above normal in about 80% of patients with GCA. However, it is a very non-specific marker and will be raised in response to other things too, especially chest infections which can send it to very high levels.

medlineplus.gov/lab-tests/c...

Without knowing what your local lab uses as the normal range I can't say HOW high it is but it is probably at least double. Of more interest/use is doing it regularly , say every couple of months, and watching for trends as you reduce the pred - that may show that you are at slightly too low a dose, inflammation is building up and avoiding action for a flare can be taken.

[piglette]

It is a good idea to keep a note of your results, so you can see how things are going over a period of time. I have always had high CRP for some unknown reason, currently around 88 and have virtually no PMR pain.