Hi, I am here for my mom and I am really concerned. About 7 yrs ago she developed a lot of swelling all over body and her ESR levels came out extremly high in the ranges of 100-120. Then doctors ran a bunch of tests for auto-immune disorders whicChatDoctore out negative and the conclusion was that there is no particular reason why her ESR is high. She was given some medications to lover the inflammation in body which worked and brounght her ESR down to 12 in a matter of 3- months. Since then she monitored her ESR regularly which remained between the ranges of 40-70 and she dint do anything about it. Recently she started complaining a lot about knee pain. X-Ray and MRI were done and she has deveoped  a cysts in her left knee and has moderate arthritis in both knees (She is 50 yrs old, not overweight and leads a very healthy lifestyle). Now my concern is what is keeping her ESR levels elevated? What tests need to be done? What else can we do to find out what exacty is going on?
Hello and welcome to Chat Doctor, Elevated ESR is not a disease, but it is indicative of an underlying disease process. ESR is elevated due to underlying inflammatory conditions. Arthritis can lead to inflammation of the knee joint and thus pain of the knee joint and thus elevated ESR level. The cause of arthritis has to be found out, and it has to be treated. ESR comes to normal once the inflammation comes under control. Thanks and take care Chat Doctor. 