What does positive c-reactive protein blood test indicate?
Patient: InvestigationResults 27.03.10Results 06/04/10Results 28/04/10Results 14/05/10Results 05/06/10Given valuesHb-13.114.714.114.913-18TLC12600106008300870096004000-11000Lymphocytes21.322.131.73322.525-50ESR102110454340RDW-11.613.9-16.711.6-14SGOT(AST) 20.4132.4717.5519.42SGPT(ALT)31.2348.5775.9425.8331.13S. TSH-2.0203.520--0.27-4.2S. Creatine---0.620.690.7-1.2S. Uric acid---13.4812.143.4-7S. Calcium----10.928.6-10.2C Reactive Protien----positive Titre----12 Dr Palash above are his blood test reports latest being on 05 jun.can u pls advice me on following doubtshis Lymphocytes has again fallen down, reasons? his ESR although has come down but insignificantly. reasons? his RDW has risen. reasons? his uric acid values are worrying me a lot. any suggestion to bring it down pls? reason for S calcium raised values? C Reactive Protien is positive. what it means? Titre  is 12 what it means what overall u see ATT medicines are effective?his TB is under control in last 02 months or not yet?regardsrajni Doctor: Hello, First of all, lab tests without clinical information are practically useless. If the doctor cannot use clinical info to filter the differential diagnosis then the list of potential diagnoses becomes impractical to use, because of its huge size.I understand that tuberculosis is the main problem. Tuberculosis may cause any disorder in the complete blood count. The closet the values return to normal the better for the efficacy of the treatment. There is use in commenting on values like the lymphocytes or the Rdw.  Perhaps if I knew the complete medical history,  there could be a reason for that.The qualitative crp is also useless. A quantitave measurement would be much more useful. The esr is a better alternative for tuberculosis and it seems to get better. His last values are almost normal which is a very encouraging sign about the efficacy of the treatment. The uric acid values are probably related to pyrazinamide use. If he's excretion a lot of it in his urine then he should take drugs to lower uric acid.Regarding treatment efficacy although the tests seem to get better, These tests are not sufficient to judge it. Radiological and microbiological tests are more important, like a chest x-ray and sputum tests.I hope I've helped! Kind regards!