Have you had a high C Reactive Protein result?

[whitby_2773]

i had my c reactive protein tested the other day and the result came back very high. i was wondering if anyone else has had this done and, if so, has anyone received a high result and do you know specifically what caused the high reading? i know this is an inflammation reading, but i wondered if anyone has specific reasons for high inflammation. i have crohn's and have heard that high c reactive protein is linked to all auto immune diseases and wondered if anyone else has had this experience?

thanks all.

 

[SeaStar]

Whitby, you're correct that an elevated CRP is linked to inflammation, so is an elevated sedimentation rate which is usually ordered with a CRP. Sometimes you can see an elevation from just an acute inflammation somewhere in the body. There are other markers that are more specific for certain kind of autoimmune disorders, like the FANA test. A lot of times it's just matching the disorder to the symptoms once the inflammatory markers are there and other causes have been ruled out. There's no way to link to specific autoimmune disorders just based on inflammatory markers. I have never had a patient with Crohn's who didn't have a positive CRP.

 

[House Cat]

Hi Whitby,

I know that your reading sounds alarming, considering that normal is 0-3. But your body has a major amount of inflammation due to untreated Crohn''s disease. Your test results will look off the charts. I just read an article that stated that this test could go higher than 53. http://gut.bmj.com/cgi/content/abstract/57/11/1518 It is comparing this test and the probability of surgery in the patient''s future.

I don''t know Drew''s first CRP off hand, because it was a long time ago. He has an appt on the 25th, so I will ask then. I know that last time he had this test done, it was slightly raised, but he is in remission. I''m sorry I can''t help any sooner...

I think it''s time to explore medication options with your doc. I know you said you worried about your immune system being weak. It''s not! It''s overactive! That is the problem with autoimmune disease. Think about it this way, your immune system has PTSD and it''s hypervigilant. It thinks your digestive system is the source of trauma. Bells and whistles go off, immune system is doing all it can to keep your body safe from your digestive system. The immunosupressant...that''s the EMDR/Talk Therapy/Somatic Therapy...whatever type therapy that is needed to calm the trauma.

Maybe I''m a weirdo for sharing that analogy. (I''m so known for being a weirdo.)

I wanted to share something else with you. I was doing some reading on soothing things to eat during a flare. The article itself is a little on the extreme side at times but I can see that there is wisdom in it as far as what foods to eat. (I don''t know about eating marrow...but eating the broth sounds good.) http://gaps.me/preview/?page_id=28 A lot of this diet is to reduce Candida, but I was just looking for soothing foods and probiotic food suggestions.

Maybe some other time, we can have a discussion on whether or not you believe in the fact that diet affects psychosis. I''d be interested. I come across this often when researching foods for Crohn''s.

Whitby, back to your test results. Please don''t worry. If you can''t help but worry, contact your cardiologist and discuss these results. If I were in your shoes, I would definitely medicate the Crohn''s to reduce the inflammation in that area and test again. If there is still inflammation, then, you know there might be a heart issue. I have a feeling there isn''t.

Have a wonderful trip Whitby! Wishing you wellness.

 

[icekid]

whitby- your CRP is most certainly high because of your autoimmune disease. The test is very non-specific and not incredibly helpful in most cases. I''m unsure what else you would like to know about CRP?

 

[whitby_2773]

thanks ladies.

i''ve had both h.s. c reactive protein and ESR tests previously, and have had both high and normal results on both, so the tests are not unfamiliar to me.

i guess what i was mainly after was an idea of range. at first glance, 38 seemed horrific and i felt like a walking cardiac time bomb - especially given my family history. but then i was reading online, and i came across an article which said that patients in the middle of a rheumatoid arthritis flare could have a reading ''over 1000.''

over 1000? really?? that kinda made me feel not so bad about my 38 and, while i know it''s much higher than i want, i wondered if the test reflected an exponential scale, or if the test was blunt after a certain point. these sorts of things just aren''t on the web as far as i can find.

house cat, re diet...

i put myself on a diet a week or two ago which is working well for me. i know a reasonable amount about nutrition and can be extremely disciplined, so am opting for a diet with no hard animal fats. i can have fish (no crustaceans) and lean chicken only, low complex carbs, zero sucrose and pretty low on the fructose and all your other toses!, zero refined carbs, heavy on the anti-inflammatories, low on acidic foods (citrus, tomatoes etc), high in low glycemic index foods, and moderate sodium. i''m also restricting calories and meal sizes. basically i''m eating cauliflower! (ok, not really, but close!) i''m hoping there will be nothing in this which razzes up my stomach. i do have a hiatal hernia tho, and it''s sending me a trifle crazy with nausea. i also have esophageal spasm and my gastro guy told me last week that he also thinks i have sphincter of oddi, type 3 - basically just so i can have the clean sweep of gastric maladies! ''type 3 sphincter of oddi'' sounds so funny, i told tim that i think the GI is just making stuff up at this stage; pretty sure if i get to Level 4 i get ''the magic crystal of Ra''!

anyway, i guess i wanted to hear specific HSCRP readings from anyone else who had received a high result, so i had some context for this 38.34 of mine; it sounds so off the scale, i just don''t know how to react to it.

 

[honey22]

My CRP was high when I was first diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis. After a while being on methotrexate, the reading came back into the normal range. Nothing has helped my Rheum factor though, that has stayed high the whole time.

 

[whitby_2773]

thanks for this info, honey. and big hug to you - RA sounds like such a tough thing.

do you have any recollection of the exact number? i''m trying to work out if i''m dangling out in the high 30''s all by myself or if this is a reasonably common figure for someone with crohn''s. given that i''m 13 x past the ''high risk'' reading, i''m kinda unnerved and wondering how common this is....

 

[LtlFirecracker]

Date: 8/3/2009 7:46:20 AM
Author: whitby_2773
thanks for this info, honey. and big hug to you - RA sounds like such a tough thing.


do you have any recollection of the exact number? i'm trying to work out if i'm dangling out in the high 30's all by myself or if this is a reasonably common figure for someone with crohn's. given that i'm 13 x past the 'high risk' reading, i'm kinda unnerved and wondering how common this is....

Whitby,

To make things more confusing, the normal value for a CRP varies by hospital. At my hospital, a CRP >1 is abnormal. At other hospitals, a CRP > 10 is abnormal. So before you can make any conclusion about a number, you need to know the reference range of lab that actually did your CRP.

The interoperation of a CRP is a hot topic right now. Some people will insist that a higher number means more severe disease. But what I have read is that some people mount really high CRPs in response to inflammation, and some people don't. We are still learning a lot about this lab.

When I use CRP's, I don't really care about the exact number. What I look it is

1) is it normal or elevated?
2) which way is it going (up or down)?
3) if I am making an intervention - is my CRP decreasing in response to that intervention?

So for me, it is more useful to trend my CRPs than to look at one by itself....does that make sense?

It is most useful when you don't have a clinical sign to follow (i.e. for an ear infection I don't use CRP's because I can follow my exam. For a bone infection, CRP is helpful, because I can't see the bone without an MRI, and those are difficult to obtain in my patient population). I don't follow a lot of people with an autoimmune disorder, but from my limited experience with IBD, a CRP is often obtained, but is a small piece of the puzzle. The patient's symptoms are a far more important indicator of weather or not the treatment is working.

Hope this helps...sorry to hear about all these problems, hope you are able to get this under control.