What is Sedimentation?
Learn more about Sedimentation
Learn more about SedimentationWhat is Sedimentation?
Some diseases show symptoms by causing different effects on the human body. An increased amount of infection in the body is also a sign of illness. The amount of infection in the body is measured by a test called sedimentation (precipitation).
Also known as the sedimentation rate test, this test is done with a simple blood sample that helps detect inflammation in the body. The sedimentation rate test is not a diagnostic tool by itself, but it can help your doctor diagnose the progression of an inflammatory disease or monitor its progress.
If your doctor has not had a special warning about the medications you are taking or your condition, it can be done regardless of whether you are hungry or full. A blood sample is taken from a vein for a sedimentation test.
How is the Sedimentation Test Performed?
The blood sample to be used in the sedimentation test is usually taken from the arm. The paramedic first tightens the upper part of your arm with a band-aid so that your veins become more prominent. After the swelling of your veins, it sterilizes the area where it will receive blood and inserts a needle into your vein. This collects the blood flowing from the back of the needle into a test tube. After blood collection, a slight pain and tenderness may appear in the area where the needle enters for a few hours.
In the sedimentation rate test, it is measured how fast the red blood cells fall to the bottom of the test tube. Infection in the blood causes cells to clump. Since these clusters are denser than cells in a single state, they go down to the bottom more quickly. In the measurement performed for the sedimentation test, the distance that the red blood cells descend within an hour is determined in millimeters and written in the test result.
How Much Should Sedimentation Be?
The normal is 0 to 22 mm/h for men and 0 to 29 mm/h for women. Taking into account age and gender factors, normal values should be in the following :
0 to 15 mm/h in men younger than 50 years,
from 0 to 20 mm/h in men older than 50 years,
0 to 20 mm/h in women younger than 50 years,
from 0 to 30 mm/h for women over 50 years old.
A high sedimentation rate in a sedimentation test is a sign that you have a disease that causes inflammation in your body. On the other hand, many factors can affect the rate of deposition of red blood cells by changing the structure of the blood. These situations are listed as follows:
Obesity,
Anemia,
Autoimmune diseases
Pregnancy,
Kidney diseases,
Various drugs
In Which Diseases Is Sedimentation Desirable?
A sedimentation test can be performed when your doctor suspects that you have a condition that causes inflammation. The sedimentation test is called a nonspecific test. This is because it does not diagnose specific diseases, but provides information about the presence and levels of inflammation.
Sedimentation Height
It can occur due to pregnancy, menstruation or anemia, rather than an inflammatory disease as a result of a moderate degree of sedimentation. Some medications and supplements that you use can also play a role in the moderate level of your results. If your sedimentation measurement result is high, it may be related to many diseases. The highlights of these ailments can be listed as follows:
Infection,
Rheumatic joint inflammation,
Rheumatic fever,
Various Vascular diseases,
Inflammatory bowel disease,
Kidney diseases
Some cancers,
Autoimmune diseases that cause your immune system to attack its own healthy cells.
Inflammation, that is, inflammation, is a reaction of your immune system to a problem. A simple cut can also cause inflammation, but this small inflammation does not seriously affect our health. The high amount of inflammation, on the other hand, may have other important reasons behind it. The sedimentation rate test serves to measure the amount of your infection. In addition, a sedimentation test can be performed at intervals to monitor the effect of treatment against an existing inflammatory condition.
Some Symptoms That May Cause a Sedimentation Test to Be Ordered Are
After listening to your complaints about your health and conducting an examination, your doctor may order a sedimentation test if he suspects one of the following possible disease possibilities:
Headache,
Stiff, swollen, or painful joint,
Pain in your shoulders, neck or pelvis,
Appetite,
Involuntary weight loss,
Extreme weight loss,
Blood in the stool, diarrhea and a different abdominal pain than usual,
Digestive problems.
If There is Inflammation in Your Body, Other Tests May Also Be Needed
The results from the sedimentation test reveal that there is inflammation somewhere in your body, but it cannot determine where the inflammation is or what is causing this inflammation. Your doctor may also want to see the values of your C-reactive protein (CRP) to help make a diagnosis. Both tests are tests that can help point to a diagnosis or determine treatment in a diagnosis. Imaging methods or a biopsy may be needed to make a clear diagnosis.