CRP test results: What are normal CRP levels in the... - PMRGCAuk

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CRP test results

Amkoffee profile image
27 Replies

What are normal CRP levels in the UK? I'm starting to think they're different in the UK because I see posts for people with CRP higher than 100. But here it shouldn't be any higher than. 5. I am confused.

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Amkoffee profile image
Amkoffee
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27 Replies
DorsetLady profile image
DorsetLadyPMRGCAuk volunteer

From UK site -

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.

Maybe labs in other countries measure differently!

Amkoffee profile image
Amkoffee in reply to DorsetLady

That's interesting. Our normal is - <0.5. That's exactly what it shows.

PMRpro profile image
PMRproAmbassador in reply to Amkoffee

medicalnewstoday.com/articl...

That is the range for what is called high specificity CRP or hs-CRP which is a slightly different test and is explained in the link.

PMRpro profile image
PMRproAmbassador

If they are quoting levels over a 100 it is probably because they have uncontrolled inflammation, are suffering from a chest infection or after trauma. The normal ranges are up to 1mg/100ml or 10 mg/L depending on the units the lab uses which they always quote.

There are a couple of people on the forum who have consistently high CRP levels and their doctors can't find any reason for them to be high - piglette is one I think. It isn't because that is a normal range figure.

Amkoffee profile image
Amkoffee in reply to PMRpro

It's just that's just so incredibly high I can't imagine having something quite that high. My highest has been 78. That would really suck.

jinasc profile image
jinasc in reply to Amkoffee

Don't worry, mine went up to 242. Nothing to do with GCA, I had jaundice. Remission into 6th year.

alvertta profile image
alvertta in reply to jinasc

Wow.

PMRpro profile image
PMRproAmbassador in reply to Amkoffee

It can get to 400+ after a hip replacement, over 200 when someone has a chest infection. It is pretty non-specific.

piglette profile image
piglette

It is the same 0-5 in UK in general. The highest mine has been is 415 after a hip op. It is normally around 29, the doctors now say it is just me and have given up checking.

HappyDiamonds profile image
HappyDiamonds

Mine was 283 in January this year, GP was treating me for trapped nerve and it took another 5 months and being admitted to hospital to get the diagnosis of GCA. Pleased to say the Hospital have been fantastic and I can't praise them enough. Im being really well looked after. Been on prednisilone for nearly 4 months and CRP last blood test was less than 1. (Started at 60mg now down to 30mg and reducing to 25mg in 2 days time). Was told normal CRP is between 2 and 5 and anything above 5 is considered high.

This is my first post although I have been checking in on the forum every day, have learned

so much and really appreciate everyone sharing their experiences and offering help and advice so thought it was about time I did the same.

Amkoffee profile image
Amkoffee in reply to HappyDiamonds

Was your sed rate also high? Mine was high long before my PMR.

HappyDiamonds profile image
HappyDiamonds in reply to Amkoffee

Have never been told my sed rate. I did feel generally unwell for some time before going to see my GP. Found to be severely anaemic and vitamin d was very low, also lost 3 stone in weight very quickly. Pretty awful 6 months to be honest, never want to go back to feeling like that again!

alvertta profile image
alvertta

In Ontario, my results show normal is less than 5.0Mg/L.

alvertta profile image
alvertta

I had 7 and lost eye sight. Yikes!!

Amkoffee profile image
Amkoffee in reply to alvertta

Did you get it back!

alvertta profile image
alvertta in reply to Amkoffee

Nope. Not coming Back.

Amkoffee profile image
Amkoffee in reply to alvertta

I'm really sorry that you lost your sight. Did you lose it in both eyes or just one?

alvertta profile image
alvertta in reply to Amkoffee

1/3 of right eye.

Odosmum profile image
Odosmum

Mine shot up from 20 to 118 at the beginning of the year and is only now returning to normal for me. Throughout, I have been taking etanercept and leflunomide for inflammatory arthritis and pred for PMR. Cardiology and rheumatology think that this is because the illness I contracted in December (not in the UK) was covid-19.

PMRpro profile image
PMRproAmbassador in reply to Odosmum

Where were you? Positive it was all over parts of northern Italy at xmas and odd cases in December

Odosmum profile image
Odosmum in reply to PMRpro

Dublin - right in the middle of Chinatown. Most people we knew had the same type of illness and then sometime in lockdown, the then Taoiseach said that there was evidence that covid-19 had been circulating in Ireland before the end of 2019. It's a reasonable assumption because I had never had anything like that in my life before. The biggest issue was not being able to get out of bed for 17 days. Husband was also ill - not for so long, but his illness kept coming back during January and February. He is diabetic, his sugars went haywire in spite of a good diet that had held everything under control for a very long time. It took until June and additional medication to bring them back under control.

PMRpro profile image
PMRproAmbassador in reply to Odosmum

The evidence that is emerging does suggest that it was well outside Wuhan long before December - after all, that was when the Wuhan doctor realised there was this cluster of patients with a funny pneumonia so there will have been loads of others not ill enough to need hospital. Someone has said the trail within their own family started in California (I think) in November. Here Italy got a lot of blame - but the Guardian had an article about Ischgl and how it spread there and then fanned out across the rest of Europe. If it was as bad as it was at the end of February it had been circulating long before that.

The genetic evidence is going to be very interesting ...

Odosmum profile image
Odosmum in reply to PMRpro

Yes, things are going to be very interesting. Here in Scotland, they talk about the different strains of coronavirus - seemingly there are, or were, 117 - and how they are able to trace where the majority of Scottish infections had come from originally. Surprisingly they came from Europe, not China. Anyhow, as they are not at all interested in doing antibody tests, clinicians can only make their best judgements about the people they see and in our case, they are convinced we did contact the pesky virus. However, that means very little because they are pretty certain reinfection is highly likely. I have a slight confidence in that I actually managed to stay alive last time I caught it!

PMRpro profile image
PMRproAmbassador in reply to Odosmum

Possibly not least due to pred?????

Odosmum profile image
Odosmum in reply to PMRpro

Quite likely that and the other anti-inflammatory meds. Also, no long covid symptoms for me, but minor ones for OH

Amkoffee profile image
Amkoffee

I've done a little more digging and apparently we measure it as a deciliter not a liter. Which is one tenth of a liter. So if .5 is normal for a deciliter then I guess that would be 5 per liter. So my result of 1.1 would actually be 11 per liter.

Amkoffee profile image
Amkoffee

It is milligram per deciliter. I assume because it says mg so I'm guessing mg stands for milligram.

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