[C-reactive protein or blood sedimentation reaction os preventive studies in the physician's laboratory?]

The laboratory examinations are more and more significant in the practical internal medicine. The results are basic for decision-making in medicine. The patients are asking for check-up examinations, including screening examinations in the laboratory. We try to compare the significance of two important laboratory tests. The C-reactive protein (CRP) is very sensitive and allows a graduation of the inflammatory reaction. It is useful to take the CRP in a valuable screening examination. Compared with the erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR), an elevated CRP always signifies an organic illness. A normal ESR has a poor predictive value. An elevated ESR supports only the history and the clinical findings of a suspected diagnoses. There is no possibility to screen patients without symptoms by ESR. We use ESR to follow-up diseases like arteritis temporalis and polymyalgia rheumatica and to measure the therapeutic effect.