The erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) is used to differentiate temporal arteritis from other forms of headache in the elderly. Though temporal arteritis can occur with a normal ESR, this is not generally appreciated in primary care. The case reported here is a 74-year-old woman with biopsy-proven temporal arteritis; her ESR was 22 mm/hr. Of note, her hematocrit was more than 40 percent, a co...

The erythrocyte sedimentation rate was studied in 520 men and 202 women with syphilis. It was raised in 66-6 per cent. of sero-negative primary cases, 80 per cent. of sero-positive cases, 100 per cent. of secondary cases, 80 per cent. of early latent cases, and 73-9 per cent. of late latent cases. It was also raised in sixteen out of seventeen cases of neurosyphilis and in all eleven cases of c...

Unstirred suspensions of erythrocytes form stable spherical aggregates of uniform size. The radius of the spheres depends upon the suspending medium and the hematocrit. Erythrocyte suspensions will undergo sedimentation only after these aggregates are formed. Aggregation is a two-step process: first, erythrocytes associate in long chains (rouleau formation). Next, these chains form spheres of u...

a dry syringe. 2 cc. of blood was put into a sterile empty penicillin vial to which .5 cc. of 3.8% sodium citrate solution had already been added. It was immediately mixed thoroughly by rotating the vial. The mixture was then drawn up into a Westergren's standard tube up to zero mark?which is exactly 200 m.m. from the tip. The tube was set up absolutely in a vertical position in a non-vibrating...

examination of all patients, has been outstanding in the minds of cancer specialists and public health authorities for years . Bolen' has advocated the gross and microscopic (low power) morphology of' dried drops of blood as sufficiently diagnostic to fill this need in many instances. Bolen employs the technic of Goldbergera as a rapid bedside test for measuring the blood sedimentation rate . G...

The viscosity of the plasma was studied briefly by Fahraeus in his original investigations (1921) into the blood sedimentation rate. In 1940 further studies were made by T'Ang and Wang, who concluded that it gave a more accurate picture of the activity of disease processes than the erythrocyte sedimentation rate. The plasma viscosity technique was independently developed by Whittington and his ...