so i got some results back today and it would be great if i knew what they meant cpr 47 and esr was 22 last time and its now higher but the reeptionist couldnt give me a figure as the doctor hasnt read it yet, anyone know what these numbers mean ,
many thanks
Written by
snoopy29
To view profiles and participate in discussions please or .
ESR: the normal range is 0-22 mm/hour for men and 0-29 mm/hour for women.
CRP: most people without any underlying health problem have a CRP level less than 3 mg/L and nearly always less than 10 mg/L.
However they do vary from person to person - and my normal may not be your normal. Plus these are not tests that are done regularly (unless you have an illness) so you don’t know what your normal would be.
What we say is if your markers are rising test on test, then that may be cause for concern... so probably need checking.
However inflammation markers can be affected by many things - not just your PMR or GCA.
When you do get the results properly there should be numbers in brackets after the result - those are the normal ranges for the lab that did them. Useful to know.
If the ESR now is higher than it was last time it is raised and the CRP is almost certainly raised.
In acute phase I was 87 and 14. Awaiting next bloods to see how the steroids are impacting. However well informed we are on here and some of you are incredibly knowledgable, doctor knows best and also, much more importantly, holds the prescription pad 😀
While I would never disagree with the second bit - he holds the prescription pad, I will say we have come across plenty of situations where the doc doesn;t know best when it comes to steroids and PMR!
I respectfully disagree that all GPs know best. Some are much more aware and knowledgable of PMR/GCA than others as evidenced in many posts. I wish you well on your journey and look forward to hearing how things progress for you. 🙂
Absolutely right. The one rider to that is that there are conflicting responses to the original post. Whilst you and increasingly me, have expert patient knowledge, I would rather trust those trained formally in the first instance, particularly with powerful and potentially life changing drugs. There are members “trusted” to self medicate based on their understanding and knowledge; a form of earned autonomy based upon, expert patient knowledge - completely appropriately so. Taking advice from a bulletin board is so useful and over the past week, this group has been invaluable to me in terms of support and advice. The one thing other than to note the comments I would not consider is changing my drug regime as it suited someone else. We are all individual, our cases are different and this disease is complex. Changing medication dosage unsupervised is dangerous and carries huge risk, particularly based on anecdotal evidence.
I'm pleased you're finding this group helpful, Theoldch, and hope that you continue to do so. If you're able to join a future Zoom meeting led by an expert with members' contributions you will find that useful too. Notification and invitation will appear here. 🙂
I would add that I'm by no means an expert but since my diagnosis in early 2018 I am learning all the time.
Both my rheumie last seen 4 years ago and numerous GPs know very little about PMR in comparison to the experts on this site. Their aim is to get one off pred ASAP (mostly impossible, very painful and very stressful), have no idea re diet and exercise to help and have never heard of DSNS method. One GP said "if you can raise your arms it's not pmr, take paracetamol and come back in a month" so 3 days later in agony and just before Christmas I went to A&E, was there all day and put on 30mg for very active pmr. I now self administer pred with permission according to symptoms and have blood test every 3 months. Enormous Thanks to all the wonderful Pro Experts.
Ask the surgery to send you a copy by email or snail mail . You will then see the items tested on the left the values in the first column and the standard expected ranges on the righ (third column)
CRP expected range 00 -4.00 mg/L ESR 1.00 -30.00 mm/h yours appear to be slightly raised ring the GP tell the receptionist you are in pain and ask to be put on the triage list you should then get a call back fairly quickly so you can discuss the results with the GP good luck
I had a face to face appointment with my rheumatologist last week. My ESR is always raised but this time she advised that it wasn’t alarmingly so as the equation they use is your age + 10 divided by 2 and if your ESR is below that it’s ok! It’s also different between women and men. I’d never been told this before but it puts raises markers into perspective.
Mind you my markers are regularly raised with or without symptoms!
She's probably at least 10 years out of date!!!! Now they realise that the increase seen in so many older people is not a natural progression - it is because of underlying undiagnosed inflammatory conditions. Not age per se.
As the others say ESR and CRP does tend to vary. Mine are always very high in the 50s and 60s. It really depends how you feel on the other hand rather than what the tests say.
Content on HealthUnlocked does not replace the relationship between you and doctors or other healthcare professionals nor the advice you receive from them.
Never delay seeking advice or dialling emergency services because of something that you have read on HealthUnlocked.