what is crp in blood report

A C-reactive protein (CRP) test is a blood test that measures the level of CRP in a sample of your blood. CRP is a protein that your liver makes, and its level increases when there is inflammation in your body. The test can show whether you have inflammation in your body and how much, but it cannot show what is causing the inflammation or which part of your body is inflamed. A CRP test may be used to help find or monitor inflammation in acute or chronic conditions, including infections from bacteria or viruses, inflammatory bowel disease, disorders of the intestines that include Crohns disease and ulcerative colitis, autoimmune disorders such as lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, and vasculitis, and lung diseases such as asthma. Your healthcare provider may use a CRP test to see if treatments for chronic inflammation are working or to make treatment decisions if you have sepsis, which is your bodys extreme response to an infection that spreads to your blood and is a life-threatening medical emergency. A high-sensitivity CRP (hs-CRP) test is more sensitive than a standard CRP test and can find smaller increases in CRP than a standard test can. The hs-CRP test can help show the risk of getting coronary artery disease, and a high level of hs-CRP in the blood has been linked to an increased risk of heart attacks.