RE: Conficker's Journal #1; Peritonsillar Abscess
Very interesting and I’m really hoping I never get a peritonsillar abscess - sounds painful!
I was interested in the statement about rate of recovery being dependent on C-Reactive protein (CRP) status. I’m assuming you mean if CRP is high then recovery will be slowed and if it’s low recovery will be hastened.
I’m guessing that is because CRP is an indicator of inflammation in the body - so if it’s fighting inflammation elsewhere or systemically the immune system just doesn’t have the resources to fight it all. Am I on the right track?
And would the abscess itself (or alone) cause an increase in CRP?
It’s a blood marker I find very interesting. Especially since In certain people (like obese people) where I would expect it to be high because of the inflammation inherent in being overweight - it sometimes comes back low.
Is there a genetic component to the marker? Inquiring minds and all that.
Looking forward to following!
Well from what I understand about CRP is they are the marker of inflammation which is produced by the liver. It doesn't fight inflammation, it just indicates there is a high level of inflammation in the body which can be due to infection and other inflammatory processes.
Abscesses were caused by infections, so yeah, CRP does increase when there is an abscess. In fact, there are some journals published which described the importance of CRP in differentiating between the diagnosis of brain abscess and brain tumour. However, CRP is a non-specific marker which kinda unreliable.
I'm not sure whether the rate of production of CRP will be genetically affected or not. Any processes which caused an elevated CRP level were usually associated with a poor healing process.