ESR

Alternative names:

erythrocyte sedimentation rate; sed rate; sedimentation rate

Normal values:

(Westergren method*)
Adults:

• Men under 50 years old: less than 15 mm/hr.
• Men over 50 years old: less than 20 mm/hr.
• Women under 50 years old: less than 20 mm/hr.
• Women over 50 years old: less than 30 mm/hr.

Pediatric:

• Newborn: 0 to 2 mm/hr.
• Neonatal to puberty: 3 to 13 mm/hr.

Note: mm/hr. = millimeters per hour

Other methods will have differing values:

• Cutler
• Wintrobe
• Smith
• Landau

What abnormal results mean:

Elevated values occur with:

• kidney disease
• pregnancy
• rheumatic fever
• rheumatoid arthritis,
• severe anemia
• syphilis
• systemic lupus erythematosus
• thyroid disease
• tuberculosis

Markedly elevated values occur with:

• giant cell (temporal, cranial) arteritis
• multiple myeloma
• macroglobulinemia - primary
• hyperfibrinogenemia (elevated fibrinogen levels in the blood)
• necrotizing vasculitis
• polymyalgia rheumatica

Lower-than-normal levels occur with:

• congestive heart failure
• hyperviscosity
• hypofibrinogenemia (decreased fibrinogen levels)
• low plasma protein (e.g., due to hepatic (liver) or renal disease)
• polycythemia
• sickle cell anemia

Additional conditions that may affect test results:

• allergic vasculitis
• atrial myxoma; left
• atrial myxoma; right
• autoimmune hepatitis
• endometritis
• eosinophilic fasciitis
• erysipelas
• juvenile rheumatoid arthritis
• Legionnaire's disease
• osteomyelitis
• pelvic inflammatory disease (PID)
• pericarditis; post-MI
• retroperitoneal fibrosis
• skin lesion of blastomycosis
• subacute thyroiditis
• systemic sclerosis (scleroderma)