Blood tests are an important way of monitoring a person’s health. It helps the doctor know the status of the body and if any steps need to be taken for corrective measures. A simple blood test can pull up hundreds of important details of the body and is indicative of all the vital statistics of the various organs of the body.
A CRP test is one of the important blood tests that can help the doctor in understanding if there is any inflammation in the body or to check if the patient is at any risk for heart disease in the near future.
What is a CRP Test?
A CRP test stands for the C-Reactive Protein Test that helps the identification of C Reactive Protein in the bloodstream. A C-reactive protein is in its Acute Phase or a protein sent into the bloodstream by the liver when there is an infection or an inflammation.
This protein acts as a response team that fights against the rising levels of infection and puts the body in a defense mode. There are two kinds of CRP tests used – one is a normal CRP test and the other is a high sensitivity CRP test.
Based on the kind of investigation that is recommended by the doctor, either of the two can be prescribed. The CRP test price is also cost-effective for patients. A CRP test helps in identifying the level of CRP in the blood work that is drawn from the patient. The normal range of CRP and the other indications are mentioned below:
- For Normal CRP tests, the normal range is lesser than or equal to 10 mg/L.
- A normal CRP test, higher than 10 mg/L is considered to be at high risk for cardiac problems or a sign of infection/inflammation in the body.
- In the high sensitivity CRP test, the normal range is 1.0 to 3.0mg/L.
- In the high sensitivity CRP test, less than 1.0mg/L is indicative of a low risk for cardiac problems.
- In the high sensitivity CRP test, higher than 3.0 mg/L is indicative of high risk for cardiac problems or a sign of infection/inflammation in the body.
Observations from CRP Test
A CRP test can help in identifying if the patient has high levels of C Reactive Protein in the blood which is released in the following conditions by the liver:
- Cancer
- Infections in body
- Inflammation anywhere in the body
- Inflammatory Bowel Disease
- Lupus
- Other Autoimmune Diseases
- Tuberculosis
- Rheumatoid Arthritis
- Heart Problems in the body
When the arteries of the heart get coated with high levels of LDL in the blood, the body detects inflammation and releases more CRP is released by the liver. When a CRP test is done, it can detect high levels of CRP because of underlying LDL levels that can cause heart problems.
A CRP test can indicate heart risk and estimate a 10 to 20% chance of heart risk in the next 10 years for patients who have high CRP test results. A CRP test alone is not a marker for heart risk.
It needs to be combined with LDL level assessments and other heart tests to monitor the risk of heart problems in the future. CRP levels also change from time to time and therefore, for the test to be efficient and accurate, it must be repeated in 2 weeks to find an average test result.
