Ask a Medical Lab Scientist

is that normal crp 14

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Q: Is CRP 14 mg/L a normal level if I’m having joint pain?

Question:

I’m having joint pain and the CRP test value is 14 mg/l. Is it a normal level?

Answer:

The short answer is No, CRP value of 14 mg/l is not normal but it is not high enough to tell that you have ongoing chronic inflammation, but can tell that the inflammation is fading or weak infection or just a false value that is should be higher, and details are below…

If you test high-sensitive-CRP the normal level is up to 3, hence the 14 is 4 times higher than normal
but if the CRP test is done with the latex method the normal is up to 10, hence 14 is mildly elevated.

CRP levels will rise rapidly within the first 6 to 8 hours after the onset of acute infection and inflammations and CRP reading decrease quickly about 19 hours (a half-life) after initiation of a successful treatment course, and therefore it is a better helpful tool for bacterial infections and antibiotic treatments.

Another thing is that the CRP test may go up too much if there is a tissue inflammation flare-up like in rheumatoid arthritis flare-up.

What causes CRP levels to be slightly higher than normal without inflammation?

  1. Obesity
  2. Lack of exercise
  3. Cigarette smoking
  4. Diabetes

Because CRP is not specific to RA, some people with RA may have normal CRP levels, many other tests can predict the reasons for joint pain better than the general inflammatory markers like the CRP test, such joint pain tests may include:

  1. ACCP and RF tests: which used for investigation if the joint pain is due to rheumatoid arthritis disease.
  2. Sed Rate test: is a better indicator for chronic inflammatori episodes than CRP test.
  3. Uric acid test: which indicating how high is the uric acid in the bloodm which means their are too much uric acid in the blood that can deposit in the joints and cause inflammation and painful sensation, medically called Gout.
  4. Thyroid tests: to investigate if there is Hypothyroidism (underactive thyroid) which responsible for some kind of joint inflammation.
  5. ANA test: to predict if you have any sign of abnormal immunity behaviour or not?
  6. LE cells and dsDNA tests: used for predecting the lupus erythromatosus disease.

X-ray imaging is the first step for diagnosis of joint pain, and using the blood tests comes after that to complete, approve, or exclude the etiological causes.

What causes false-negative CRP levels?

What causes a mild increase in CRP levels while it should be higher?

Certain medicines can falsely cause CRP levels in the blood to be lower than normal or become lower than they should be. These include taking antibiotics, aspirin, steroids, and nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) {which are widely used for relieving pain, reduce inflammation, and bring down a high temperature}.

Types of NSAIDs include:

  • ibuprofen.
  • naproxen.
  • diclofenac.
  • celecoxib.
  • mefenamic acid.
  • etoricoxib.
  • indomethacin.
skin atrophy and red spots

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Q: I and My Daughter have Red Patches on my Skin although the Tests PT, aPTT, and FDP are normal in Blood Test Results, what could be the actual reason?

Question:

So I was sent off for some testing because of how my legs look… these are the results and I know they are in range but they are close to the bottom or top of the ranges could these be why I’m the way I am with my legs… I’ve had 2 lots of tests this week Monday and Thursday so waiting to see those results…

Well I’ve Multiple sclerosis (ms) and Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (EDS), and many other things but unsure on why I get these and my daughter is the same

Nothing can stop it…I don’t mind it just part of life so have to forget it

  • daughter skin
  • normal PT PTT FDP
  • my skin red patches
  • looks like trauma

Answer:

Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (EDS) and MS have clinical aspects that include skin fragility and easy bruising, and bruise-like aspects, and other skin changes and skin-accelerated aged appearance that accompany that two diseases. Just to take that into your account.

Also, if you find your daughter’s skin is translucent don’t be surprised, because it’s from MS and EDs.

We recommend covering all furniture to make homes safe and prevent falls, avoid contact sports and wear protective wear, stop smoking, avoid the sun, and take some vitamins and collagen to compensate.

Unfortunately, there’s no blood test to diagnose the MS disease, instead, we do other tests that rule out the autoimmune diseases that share the same symptoms such as Lupus erythematosus, Sjogren’s, vitamin and mineral deficiencies, some infections, and rare hereditary diseases.

according to these medical facts, red patches on the skin is one of many skin changes that occur to a person who has such autoimmune abnormalities as MS and EDs, that is why PT test, PTT, and FDP tests are normal in the MS/EDs patient’s blood. red patches and scars on the skin of multiple sclerosis patients are not due to abnormal blood coagulation factors or lack of platelets and not due to blood clots under the skin, it’s due to abnormalities and defects of the skin itself.

a child has too much growth hormones while his height is below the recommended tall of the 4 years old boy which is 40 inches in average

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Q: My 4 Years son has been high IGF 3 hormone for over 2 years now but he isn’t large or growing fast, Is the continuously high IGF3 relevant?

Question:

Is anyone familiar with IGF 3 hormone? My son has been high for over 2 years now but he isn’t large or growing fast. The endocrinologist doesn’t have an explanation. She just keeps saying we will keep an eye on it.
I feel like they are missing something.
He is going to be 4 next week and is 36″ tall. He’s always been in the 3rd percentile or less.
Just looking to see if anyone had any insight.
Thanks
picture of my son next to his 2-year-old cousin

Thank you for taking the time to help explain this. Is the continuously high IGF3 relevant?

Answer:

In medical science, Insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) hormone along with growth hormone (GH), are the hormones that promote normal growth and development of bone and tissues.

The IGF3 test measures the amount of IGF-1 (also called Insulin-like growth factor binding protein 3 (IGFBP-3)) in the blood. IGF-1 is primarily produced in the liver, skeletal muscles, and many other tissues in response to Growth Hormone stimulation.

Normally, Levels of IGFBP-3 (IGF-1) are of the highest during childhood and puberty and can’t be considered as an abnormal issue, then the Growth hormones levels decrease during adulthood.

It’s good to mention that: Growth hormones levels also may be affected by sexual maturation and nutritional status.

If adults have high IGF hormone levels, they may be diagnosed with acromegaly, a medical term for a case whose body tissues and bones continuously grow more quickly.

Medically, Adolescents during puberty normally have Increased levels of GH and IGF-1 due to the demand for growth and are considered healthy and normal.

Other causes of high IGF hormone without growth needs may include:

Pituitary tumors: usually benign although they show increased levels of insulin-like growth hormone and growth hormone.

In this case: a child has too much growth hormones and normal Thyroid Function Tests while his height is below the recommended tall of the 4 years old boy which is 40 inches on average.

According to the facts we have mentioned above, I can tell that your boy may not have issues in his hormonal levels and the problem can be due to nutritional, neurological, or other causes.

And therefore, more investigations by your doctor are much recommended to ensure that the IGF elevations are of the healthy body functions and not due to abnormalities.

It’s appropriate to tell that Dwarfism is short stature that results from a genetic or medical condition and is generally defined as an adult height of 147 centimeters (4 feet 10 inches) or less.

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Q: My Anti-dsDNA was positive at 13 but my ANA test came back negative, What does that mean?

These are links to both pages of my recent blood work.

Sorry, I couldn’t figure out how to load images on here. I tried everything.

my first ana test came back positive at my physical but then when retested at specialist my ana came back negative but my anti-dsDNA came back positive at 13.

what does this mean?

thank you in advance for your time and help. -melissa

dsDNA positive 13 and negative of the rest of antibodies low aldolase
normal urine normal protein creatinine ratio normal creatine kinase

    The answer:

    In fact, the nature of such variable autoantibodies is heterogenic, which means that they recognize different conformational and sequential neo-epitopes, thus it can be possible to get Positive dsDNA antibodies while ANA was negative.

    Also, ANA is positive in 95% of cases of SLE disease, so that it can be very rare if SLE patients get Negative SLE.

    Test Sensitivity can be a real problematic factor so that it is much recommended for such a strange combination of results to retest and follow-up every period of time.

    I think the diagnostic ANA titer for SLE patients must be rechecked in many laboratories depending on the sensitivity and specificity of the used method.

    The results above show elevated dsDNA but with a very close number to the upper limit of the reference range, in my laboratory, I used to retest such close numbers to avoid false-positive results.

    There are many diseases other than SLE that have positive dsDNA, such as antiphospholipid antibody syndrome, tuberculosis, osteomyelitis, thymoma, lymphoma, sarcoidosis, and autoimmune hepatitis