What Causes Elevated CRP Levels?

Posted on Mon, 21 Nov 2016

Medically reviewed by Ask A Doctor - 24x7 Medical Review Team

Mon, 21 Nov 2016 Answered on

Tue, 13 Dec 2016 Last reviewed on

Question : I have an elevated CRP. The ANA and RA factor came back negative. My internist thinks I need to see a Rheumatologist, but I'm not sure why. I know that the CRP shows inflammation, but couldn't it be something other than an arthritic condition?

Answered by Dr. Prof. Kunal Saha (3 hours later)

Brief Answer:
Can be due to a number of causes.

Detailed Answer:
Thanks for asking on HealthcareMagic.

I have gone through your query and understand your concerns. CRP is elevated due to inflammatory or infective causes. However, Ferritin is usually raised specifically due to inflammatory cause. In your case it is not necessarily due to rheumatological causes that CRP would be raised. There are a host of causes for which CRP may rise. A proper clinical evaluation and correlation is needed to identify the complaints that you have and it is only based on your symptoms that we can suspect what the underlying cause is. RA factor is not always present even in rheumatoid arthritis. So, its negativity does not rule out anything.

Let me know if I could help further.

Regards

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Raju A.T