Differences betwee ESR and CRP blood tests
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Diagnosed in Dec 2018 with aborted tapering efforts between diagnosis date and Nov 2019. Dec 10 2019 cortizone shots in knee (osteo and inflammatory arthritis) and right and left shoulder for tendonitis. Jan 10 2020 ESR and CRP test results 5 and 6 with normal being 0-30 and 0-10 respectively. By Feb 17, 2020 tapered to 4mg and feeling fine. Playing with grandkids in ocean developed inflammatory arthritis of knee. My doctor put me on 20mg of prednisone for each of two days followed by 10 mg for each of 7days and then 5mg. At the end of the 7 days each taking 10mg had a blood test with ESR of 3 and CRP of 29. My doctor says to hold at 5mg until I see her in May 2020. I feel fine, possibly some swelling remains in knee, but I am active. Two questions (1) what are ESR and CRP measuring that would produce such different results? (2) Thoughts on holding at 5mg or continue tapering? Thank you for your comments.
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EileenH rick00953
Posted
Have you had a chest infection recently? Or an injury? It is possible the CRP is still high in response to the inflammatory arthritis. They don't both always rise and a single raised value shouldn't result in a kneejerk increase in dose if there aren't any symptoms as well. Get them tested again next week and see what's happened.
rick00953 EileenH
Posted
Thank you for your suggestion. I've set up a blood test appointment for two weeks from now and will get add'l opinions from another doctor.