About Inflammatory Markers
Inflammation is our body's defense response when it is damaged. Its occurrence can prompt the harmful things on the wound to be removed in time, at the same time repair our damaged parts and restore health as soon as possible. However, inflammation can also lead to different degrees of damage to the body, such as allergic reactions, edema, fluid accumulation, etc. In severe cases, it can cause different degrees of degeneration, necrosis, and organ dysfunction in parenchymal cells of the heart, liver, kidney, and other organs, and even be life-threatening.
1. The meaning of inflammatory markers
Inflammatory biomarker refers to indicators for judging inflammatory diseases in clinical diagnosis. When bacteria (or viruses) infect biological organisms, the body often has an inflammatory response, manifested as fever, increased white blood cell count, increased erythrocyte deposition rate, and increased various acute-phase proteins.
The significance of inflammatory markers is that inflammatory markers are substances whose content changes suddenly in the body when the body is subjected to inflammatory stimuli such as microbial invasion or tissue damage. The change in its content has important guiding significance for monitoring the activity of inflammatory diseases and observing the treatment effect.
Inflammatory markers mainly include white blood cell count, immunoglobulin IgG, complement c3, PCT, and CRP. CRP is a global c-reactive protein, an acute-phase reactive protein. When acute infection and inflammation occur, CRP is elevated. PCT'sfull name is procalcitonin.
PCT will also be elevated when severe bacterial inflammation and fungal infections occur. And immunoglobulin IgG is an antibody, which also rises when a bacterial infection occurs. The white blood cells in the blood can be got in a blood routine test. When acute infection and acute inflammation occur, white blood cells increase. But if typhoid fever and paratyphoid fever occur, the white blood cells will decrease.
2. Inflammatory marker test
The occurrence and severity of inflammation can be judged by white blood cell count (WBC), erythrocyte sedimentation rate, and acute-phase protein concentration. Typically, WBC, erythrocyte sedimentation rate and acute-phase proteins are markers of inflammation.
New inflammatory markers include procalcitonin, C-reactive protein, serum amyloid A, interleukin-6, and more. The levels of these markers in the body are not affected by antibiotics, immunosuppressants, or hormones, and can be used as reliable indicators of inflammatory symptoms.
