Hi Sarah, when I was first diagnosed, my ESR was 28 and my CRP was 20. I was in horrific pain and when I came here and saw that some folk had ESR of 140 or so, I was blown away. If I was is such awful pain with my ESR, what kind of pain could they be in?!!
Thing is that while CRP can be helpful in determining disease activity, ESR isn't always. AS is unique in that for many patients, the ESR either doesn't elevate, or elevates very little as compared to actual disease activity.
Here's the conclusion I came to. It's all relative. Your pain is your pain and cannot, neither should it, be compared to someone else's. Your pain at an ESR of 5 could be comparable to someone else's at 100. It might not be. But none of us will ever really know.
Dr. I has been involved in trying to change the diagnostic criteria for AS so that ESR and damage visible on x-ray are not as prominent. Not sure if you saw the paper that was linked here last week, but it looks like the team involved succeeded (I can't recall whether this paper included Dr. I's work, or whether he was on something separate).
Can't speak to the other numbers as I am seronegative (RF) and I don't recall my ANA.
Really, you're lucky your sister has AS and that you've been referred to Dr. I. right off the bat. Between the two, you're setting off well (if you know what I mean).
Hugs,
