Medical Diagnosis Exams

The ESR is an easy, inexpensive, non-specific test that has been used for many years to help diagnose conditions associated with acute and chronic (that is, short or long duration) inflammation, including infections, cancers, and autoimmune diseases. ESR is said to be non-specific because increases do not tell the doctor exactly where the inflammation is in your body or what is causing it, and also because it can be affected by other conditions besides inflammation. For this reason, an ESR is typically used in conjunction with other tests.

The ESR is helpful in diagnosing two specific inflammatory diseases, temporal arteritis and polymyalgia rheumatica. A high ESR is one of the main test results used to confirm the diagnosis. It is also used to monitor disease activity and response to therapy in both of these diseases.

An important use of the ESR blood test is to monitor the activity of the underlying condition causing the inflammation and the subsequent response to treatment.