Acute phase proteins
CRP and ESR levels can be elevated in a wide variety of conditions including trauma, infection, infarction, neoplasms, and inflammatory arthritis. Usually ESR and CRP levels correlate well, but in some patients levels may be discordant for reasons that are unclear. They are very useful in monitoring disease activity in rheumatologic conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis, polymyalgia rheumatica, and giant cell arteriitis. Some studies have shown that the pretreatment ESR value is of some prognostic value in polymyalgia rheumatica. Most patients with active lupus have normal or minimally elevated CRP levels, and markedly elevated concentrations of CRP in SLE should raise a suspicion of bacterial infection. Other causes for elevated CRP in SLE patients include serositis, synovitis, and vasculitis
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