Jessica Watson is a GP who has done a PhD on inflammatory marker blood tests. In this blog she answers commonly asked questions about these blood tests.What are inflammatory markers?Inflammatory markers are blood tests used by doctors to detect inflammation in the body, caused by many diseases. This can include infections, auto-immune conditions and cancers. The three most commonly used inflammatory markers are called C-reactive protein (CRP), erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) and plasma viscosity (PV).What do inflammatory markers measure?CRP, PV and ESR each measure inflammation in the blood in slightly different ways.The body produces proteins as part of the normal response to infection or inflammation. One of these proteins is call C-reactive protein (CRP). CRP is released quickly at the start of infections or inflammatory conditions.Plasma viscosity is another test which measures the thickness (or ‘viscosity’) of blood. This is done by calculating the force needed to send plasma...
