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Dr. Andrew Rynne
MD
Dr. Andrew Rynne

Family Physician

Exp 50 years

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How Can High ESR Levels Be Treated For Reducing Severe Neck Pain?

I have had RA in the past, an then it was gone through blood test. Now, I am experiencing severe neck an back stiffening. Which is happening all the time now. No doctor can figure out what it is. I have had blood work, MRI, and x ray..nothing. Except, the blood work shows an ESR of 30 an they are saying its high. My Neurologist is saying not to take the Leflunamide for the RA as its not something to start n stop. I m living on Pain pills and Predisone..today is a good day..meaning no pain. Trying to find out how to get ESR down , so I won t have the severe pain anymore.
Wed, 12 Dec 2018
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Internal Medicine Specialist,  's  Response
Hi,

RA is a systemic inflammatory disease and often presents with elevated nonspecific inflammatory markers such as ESR. High ESR usually indicates increased disease activity.

Associated anemia, abnormalities in red blood cell morphology, and intercurrent illnesses, if any will also increase ESR.

In general, the ESR improves along with other RA activity measures with the initiation of effective treatment and can predict long-term health outcomes. However, it is less clear how closely the ESR tracks short-term changes in RA activity, with low or only moderately high correlations between changes in the ESR and changes in other RA activity measures.

In general, the sensitivity to change of the ESR has been found to be lower than that of many other measures of RA activity.

Glucocorticoids (prednisone as you are taking) serve in several ways to control disease activity in RA.

The mere reduction of ESR hence may not be the goal of therapy in RA. Once symptoms are controlled such as pain, medicines are to be continued.

Hope I have answered your query. Let me know if I can assist you further.

Regards,
Dr. Tushar Kanti Biswas,
Internal Medicine Specialist
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How Can High ESR Levels Be Treated For Reducing Severe Neck Pain?

Hi, RA is a systemic inflammatory disease and often presents with elevated nonspecific inflammatory markers such as ESR. High ESR usually indicates increased disease activity. Associated anemia, abnormalities in red blood cell morphology, and intercurrent illnesses, if any will also increase ESR. In general, the ESR improves along with other RA activity measures with the initiation of effective treatment and can predict long-term health outcomes. However, it is less clear how closely the ESR tracks short-term changes in RA activity, with low or only moderately high correlations between changes in the ESR and changes in other RA activity measures. In general, the sensitivity to change of the ESR has been found to be lower than that of many other measures of RA activity. Glucocorticoids (prednisone as you are taking) serve in several ways to control disease activity in RA. The mere reduction of ESR hence may not be the goal of therapy in RA. Once symptoms are controlled such as pain, medicines are to be continued. Hope I have answered your query. Let me know if I can assist you further. Regards, Dr. Tushar Kanti Biswas, Internal Medicine Specialist