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Why it's done
By Mayo Clinic staffYour doctor may order a sed rate test to help make a diagnosis, judge the effectiveness of a treatment or assess the severity of certain inflammatory diseases.
Diagnosis
If you have symptoms of certain inflammatory disorders, a sed rate test may help your doctor consider a diagnosis. Sed rate tests were used more frequently in the past than they are today because more-specific measures of inflammatory activity are available. Today, the test is most often used if your doctor suspects you have one of the following diseases:
- Rheumatoid arthritis, which causes inflammation of the lining of joints and results in pain, joint damage and joint deformity
- Polymyalgia rheumatica, an inflammatory disorder that causes widespread muscle aching and stiffness, primarily in your neck, shoulders, upper arms, thighs and hips
- Giant cell arteritis (GCA), or temporal or cranial arteritis, an inflammation of the lining of your arteries that can cause headaches, jaw pain, and blurred or double vision
Treatment monitoring
If you're taking medications, such as corticosteroids, to treat rheumatoid arthritis or another inflammatory disease, your doctor may order a sed rate test to monitor the effect of the treatment. Although improvements in your symptoms will likely be the primary measure of a drug's effect, changes in your sed rate may help your doctor monitor your response to treatment.
Use in emergency rooms
A sed rate test may be used in an emergency room to add to the evidence of an infectious or inflammatory condition, such as pneumonia, appendicitis or another acute inflammatory disease.
- Fischbach FT, et al. Manual of Laboratory and Diagnostic Tests. Online ed. Philadelphia, Pa.: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins; 2009. http://ovidsp.tx.ovid.com/spb/ovidweb.cgi?QS2=434f4e1a73d37e8ca2f1a384710471f9f1921ff2861d638048feb3298636e2121057526476519244483bb14807d4c5520d1933e4b30b7a9ea311cccda5cd88d5aa464a0044d1c124a7e8ef444bf0c63414596415eb6d902f34bcb1caedcb4cab3b1cd1ca991a5966a4ae4b95bc1fe1b52df6671229f737d120cb3699d1742eb900d1e2340e85ee8d2c1d575e9550b816826f1b1566312dd6f534c6ff066e4b8b703a6d55561e2c7bb41af5b1b2268df94e7ba28e509470ae52a3b105af7296a41ace23b8f7f517745d43f3660a827f57. Accessed Oct. 15, 2008.
- McPherson RA, et al. Henry's Clinical Diagnosis and Management by Laboratory Methods. 21st ed. Philadelphia, Pa.: Saunders Elsevier; 2007. http://www.mdconsult.com/das/book/body/108738632-2/0/1393/0.html. Accessed Oct. 15, 2008.
- Brigden ML. Clinical utility of the erythrocyte sedimentation rate. American Family Physician. 1999;60(5):1443-50. http://www.aafp.org/afp/991001ap/1443.html. Accessed Oct. 15, 2008.
- Reference values. Sedimentation. Rochester, Minn.: Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research; 2008.
