What Causes Elevated CRP Levels?

Posted on Mon, 23 Feb 2015

Question: What would cause a person who usually have a white blood cell count of 6 go to 12 but you are a little tired and you have an elevated crp but not critical

Answered by Dr. Panagiotis Zografakis (15 minutes later)

Brief Answer:
a mild infection

Detailed Answer:
Hello,

many infections cause an elevated CRP. Bacterial infections usually (but not always) cause high CRP elevations while viral infections usually (but not always) cause lower CRP elevations.
The same applies for the white blood cell count. One more parametere to consider is the timing the blood was drawn. During the first 24-48 hours after a viral infection, white blood cells counts may be elevated and get lower after that.
And there are many common viral infections that may cause almost any result (high or low white blood cells count).
The most common scenario for the case that you've described is either a mild bacterial infection or a viral infection.
I hope you find my answer helpful!
If you'd like more information, please provide more clinical details (like fever, associated symptoms etc) using your follow-up questions.

Kind Regards!

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Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Vinay Bhardwaj