Anticoagulant therapy has been employed in thromboembolic disease with increasing frequency during the past few years. There has been a striking lack of unanimity in the literature (1 to 15) as to the effect of heparin or dicumarol per se upon the erythrocyte sedimentation rate. In view of the fact that anticoagulants are frequently employed in disorders in which the sedimentation rate is of im...

Electrophoretic studies and erythrocyte sedimentation rate measurements were carried out on normal and pathological human blood. An increase in alpha globulin levels appears to take place, as well as an increase in sedimentation rates, when there is present any considerable inflammation or tissue destruction, irrespective of its cause. A graphic correlation is presented between sedimentation ra...