November 2, 2007

CRP & Inflammation

How testing can help you:
C-reactive proteins are the major acute proteins produced by liver in response to tissue damage. Its name derives from its pattern recognition activity as they act as soluble receptors which can recognize receptor patterns on microbial surface and bind to these surfaces and promote their opsonization. Precisely, C-reactive proteins bind to the C-polysaccharide cell-wall components found on a variety of bacteria & fungi.
The release of C-reactive proteins is a part of the complex cascade of events involving a variety of chemical mediators required to initiate the inflammatory response. So, high levels of CRP in the blood indicate inflammation somewhere in the body.
Inflammation is the primary immunological response to tissue damage caused by a wound or by an invading pathological microbe. So, it acts as an important indicator of initiation and progression of many diseases. Some of the important scenarios where inflammation is used as a marker are:
0 In the detection of cardiovascular diseases
0 As a check for effectiveness of various anti-inflammatory treatments.
0 To help diagnose rheumatoid arthritis, this is characterized by high levels of CRP.
0 For early detection of various post-operative infections.
CRP levels can increase many thousand-folds with inflammation which makes CRP a very sensitive marker […]