On the possibility of differential diagnosis at elevated erythrocyte sedimentation rate by analysis of the concentrations of blood plasma proteins--a model study.

An elevated erythrocyte sedimentation rate is generally regarded as an unspecific and mostly pathological indicator of inflammation or tumour. However, we have determined the concentrations of plasma/serum proteins that influence the erythrocyte sedimentation rate in numerous samples from several groups of patients with different diseases, including 2 forms of cancer. Equations have been developed by which the 1 h value of erythrocyte sedimentation rate can be expressed as the sum of disease-specific coefficients for each protein multiplied by the measured concentrations of the respective proteins. These equations are shown to be disease-specific with 64-93% probability. Such equations may thus form the basis for differential diagnosis.