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Updated: May 28, 2026
Erythrocyte Sedimentation Rate: A Physics-Driven Characterization in a Medical Context
Published on: March 24, 2023
A Comparison Between the StaRRsed Auto-Compact Erythrocyte Sedimentation Rate Instrument and the Westergren Method
Juha Horsti1, Riikka Rontu, Auni Collings
1Tampere University Hospital, Centre for Laboratory Medicine, Department of Clinical Chemistry, Tampere, Finland.
Background:
The Westergren method is the golden standard for measuring erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR). All ESR methods should agree with the standardized method of the International Council for Standardization in Hematology (ICSH). Citrate samples are commonly used for ESR. This extra sample adds costs and can be inconvenient for the patient. Therefore, some new automated ESR analyzers use EDTA samples, which are available for other hematology measurements.
Methods:
We compared ESR measurements with StaRRsed Auto-Compact instrument to the ICSH standardized Westergren method in 200 patient samples.
Results:
The correlation between methods was fairly good (R(2) = 0.72, y = 1.066x 0.24). However, with ESR results over 11 mm/h there were 55 subjects with a difference of over 30% between methods.
Conclusions:
This may have led to different treatment suggestions in 25 cases according to age- and gender-dependent normal values. The difference may be caused by two different anticoagulants used, different measuring times and the correlation equation used. The StaRRsed ESR method should be in better agreement with the Westergren method, which is the golden standard. ESR results have notable impact on patient diagnosis and follow-up.
Keywords:
ESR; Erythrocyte sedimentation rate; StaRRsed; Westergren method.
