Erythrocyte Sedimentation Rate (ESR test )

ESR test is also known as erythrocyte sedimentation rate used to monitor the treatment of infection, inflammation, etc here we will compare both of the methods which is used to estimate ESR  Wintrobe, Westergren's methods.

 ERYTHROCYTE SEDIMENTATION RATE (ESR)

principle procedure & method and Result

 Erythrocyte Sedimentation Rate (ESR test ) 

DIFFERENCE BETWEEN WINTROB TUBE AND WESTERGREN PIPETTE

ESR test	ERYTHROCYTE SEDIMENTATION RATE (ESR)
	Monitoring Prognosis of Diseases
Purpose or test	To see the response to treatment in	Diagnostic Uses of ESR
	Arthritis ,	Rheumatoid arthritis
	Autoimmune diseases, such as lupus	Chronic infections
	Inflammatory	Collagen diseases
	Infections	Multiple myeloma
	bowel disease	Macroglobulinaemia
Name of method	Westergren’s method	Wintrobe’s method
Requirement	Blood (containing anticoagulant), Westergren’s pipette	Blood (containing anticoagulant), Wintrobe tube
specimen	Blood	Blood
Anticoagulant	Trisodium citrate	Ethylene diamine tetraacetic acid (EDTA) , Double oxalate
instrument	Westergren’s pipette	Wintrobe tube
About instrument	Westergren’s pipette is a straight pipette	Wintrobe tube is a glass tube closed at one end.
Length of the tube	30 cm long open at both ends	The tube is 110 mm long
internal bore diameter	internal bore diameter of Westergren’s pipette  is  2.5 mm	internal bore diameter Wintrobe tube  of is  2.5 mm.
Other things	Calibrated from 0-200 mm from top to bottom and anticoagulant already put in a tube.	The tube is graduated on both sides : from 0 to 10 on one side and 10 to 0 cm on the other
Procedure	morning fasting sample is require because heavy protein diet affects concentration of plasma proteins  and that affect the result	morning fasting sample is require because heavy protein diet affects concentration of plasma proteins  and that affect the result
	Take 1.6 ml of patient’s blood and mix it with 0.4 ml of citrate	Draw 1 ml of blood into the anticoagulant
	Fill the pipette up to mark O with citrated blood with the help of rubber teat by vacuum filling	Fill the Wintrobe tube up to mark 0 with anticoagulated blood with the help of a Pasteur pipette having a long stem (15 cm) so as to fill the tube free of air bubbles.
	fix it in a rack vertically away from sun light or vibrations
	Let it stand for one hour after which reading is taken at the upper meniscus of the RBCs.	Place the tube vertically in a stand and note the ESR after one hour.
Observation
Normal values
Males	3-5 mm 1st hour	Males 0-7 mm 1st hour
Females	4-7 mm 1st hour	0-15 mm 1st hour
Advantages
Disadvantages
Variation in ESR value	High ESR value	Low ESR value
	Tuberculosis,	Polycythaemia
	Pregnancy	Spherocytosis
	Acute myocardial	Sickle cell anemia
	Liver disease	Congestive heart failure
	Multiple myeloma	Newborn infant
	Rheumatoid arthritis	Hypofibrinogenaemia

 

Difference between both method