My sister is of 27 years and is suffering from cough. Her ESR is more than normal. She has taken many antibiotics, etc. sometimes she vomit TB has not found in check up. She is looking very weak.

Infection in Body Treatment

Erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) is a diagnostic procedure which indicates the presence of infection and inflammation in the body. What is the ESR level of your sister? If it is above 100 units, it infers the presence of an underlying disease. ESR is generally used in conjunction with other tests to diagnose the problem. Temporary increase in the ESR is due to various reasons. Hence an elevated ESR not only causes rheumatoid arthritis.

It is also necessary to identify the correlation between vomiting and the underlying complication. ESR is performed to asses the presence of inflammatory diseases, such as temporal arteritis and polymyalgia rheumatica. Symptoms are anemia, headache, shoulder pain, neck and pelvic pain, stiffness of joints and weight loss. Erythrocyte sedimentation rate levels are not specific to inflammatory conditions. Elevated ESR levels devoid of specific symptoms, makes it difficult to infer the condition. Unseen problems can also exist in the absence of high ESR levels. Abnormalities in protein, polycythemia and leukocytosis are also seen to occur. Moderate increase in ESR is seen along with pregnancy, anemia, infection and old age, in addition to infection. Hence certain other diagnostic tests are also necessary. Kindly refer to your physician for further guidance.

answered by Dr C