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Sed rate, blood work

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Ulcerative Colitis
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Posted 9/1/2015 5:38 PM (GMT 0)
The sed rate measures the amount of inflammation in your body, it's a nonspecific test but gives you a good idea of what you have going on inflammation wise. The normal range is 0-9 and mine is current 54. When I left the hospital three weeks ago it was 50. So it's getting worse instead of better even though I dont feel like it should be that high with me feeling a little better and having semi formed stools .. It was lower when I was feeling worse. Does anyone use this lab test as a reference? How accurate is it in relation to a flare from your experience?
Posted 9/1/2015 6:07 PM (GMT 0)
It is somewhat accurate
My doctors like crp ( c- reactive protein) thy said it was slightly more accurate.
The sed rate takes longer to reflect the inflammation in your body versus crp
However if you see it's trending upwards that's not great
If you see it's trending down that's better
One fluctuation isn't too concerning but you should ask your doc what he thinks of it
Posted 9/1/2015 6:19 PM (GMT 0)
it is very accurate for me when i am flaring. my doctor monitors sed rate and crp on every blood work so i dont need scopes to know when i am flaring (like it's hard to tell anyway haha).

it is a bad sign that it is going up since you are on remicade. how many times are you going to the bathroom daily? are you bleeding or having pain?
Posted 9/1/2015 6:22 PM (GMT 0)
Yeah mine is very high for the CRP, 77 to be exact. And what scares me is the test that says "Relative risk based on crp/chol/HDL because this shows your chance of a heart attack or heart disease and mine is super elevated above the normal range. Is this normal for UC patients? Is it cause for concern?
Posted 9/1/2015 6:30 PM (GMT 0)
While flaring it's normal
My crp was way over 200 at some points
Obviously you want it to trend downwards
It could have also been the rapid taper of steroids that did it but that is just a guess
Posted 9/1/2015 7:01 PM (GMT 0)
Mine was always normal and I had terrible symptoms regardless. I don't take any of those results to mean too much in relation to symptoms, not in my case at least. The only time mine was terribly out of normal range was when I had a severe bacteria.
Posted 9/1/2015 8:36 PM (GMT 0)
You-See,

My GI was always more concerned with how I felt then what my Sed-rate was. Don't put too much weight on the exact number but at some point you will want that number to go down but you just got out of the hospital a few weeks ago.
Posted 9/2/2015 8:46 AM (GMT 0)
In the early stages of my daughters disease, it was an accurate predictor of symptoms- they went hand in hand. Later, the SED or CRP rates were " more normal", but they didn't align. Not sure why.
I wouldn't react to small changes with a change in strategy.
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