C-REACTIVE PROTEIN TEST

On many occasions it is important for physicians to learn whether patients have an inflammatory or a tissuedestroying process. Various procedures have been used, including the recording of the patient's temperature and leukocyte count and the erythrocyte sedimentation test. The detection of the C-reactive protein in human blood has recently attracted attention as an index to inflammation or tissue destruction within the human body. This procedure has been used especially for the determination of activity in rheumatic fever.1It has been shown that C-reactive protein is a sensitive guide to rheumatic inflammation, that it disappears after suppression of clinical signs and symptoms of activity with either salicylates or steroid therapy, and that it reappears if there is a clinical relapse. The times of disappearance and reappearance ordinarily precede the corresponding change in the erythrocyte sedimentation rate. The C-reactive protein appears within 14 to 26 hours after inflammation or tissue