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Understanding Rheumatoid Arthritis - Share Your Symptoms

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Sed. Rate

lionbaby73 posted:

What does a sed rate of 55 mean? I know it's slightly higher than normal but what could it mean? Since my doctor had no time to interpret my results with me since I didn't have an appointment

I just want an idea of what can cause this. Thank you

2 Replies |Watch This Discussion | Report This| Share this:Sed. RateWhat does a sed rate of 55 mean? I know it's slightly higher than normal but what could it mean? Since my doctor had no time to interpret my results with me since I didn't have an appointment <img src="http://img.webmd.com/community/images/chagrin.gif" align="top" border="0"> I just want an idea of what can cause this. Thank you

MrsAddka responded:

A sed rate 55 mm/hour is high enough, do you have too much pain? It is a rate of sedimentation of erythrocytes and it is higher when you have inflammation in your body (a normal rate for women is till 10)

Report This| Share this:Sed. RateA sed rate 55 mm/hour is high enough, do you have too much pain? It is a rate of sedimentation of erythrocytes and it is higher when you have inflammation in your body (a normal rate for women is till 10)

Scott Zashin, MD responded:

While the normal result for a sedimentation rate increases as we age, I consider a result over 30 to be abnormal. Inflammatory arthritis like lupus or RA can cause this problem, bbut so can an infection such as a virus. If it is due to an infection, the test will revert back to normal in time. There are a number of other chronic diseases that also can be associated wtih a high sed rate.

Report This| Share this:Sed. RateWhile the normal result for a sedimentation rate increases as we age, I consider a result over 30 to be abnormal. Inflammatory arthritis like lupus or RA can cause this problem, bbut so can an infection such as a virus. If it is due to an infection, the test will revert back to normal in time. There are a number of other chronic diseases that also can be associated wtih a high sed rate.

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