Eritrocyt sedimantation rate

The ESR is an old, inexpensive, yet still widely used test. The test has a role in rheumatoid arthritis, temporal arteritis, polymyalgia rheumatica and myeloma. It may have an additional role in follow-up of patients with otitis media, osteomyelitis, sickle cell disease, HIV, pelvic inflammatory disease, intravenous drug users, prostate cancer and stroke. The ESR, however, should only be used as a guide. The clinician, when ordering an ESR, should realize that this test is only one parameter that could be helpful in the diagnosis and follow-up of certain inflammatory conditions and also have an important prognostic role in noninflammatory conditions such as prostate cancer, stroke. Thus, we continue to learn about this old yet still important test even today. We present a summary of clinical usefulness of the ESR through out of this review article.