1. Sign our petition calling on Cochrane to withdraw their review of Exercise Therapy for CFS here.
    Dismiss Notice
  2. Guest, the 'News in Brief' for the week beginning 8th April 2024 is here.
    Dismiss Notice
  3. Welcome! To read the Core Purpose and Values of our forum, click here.
    Dismiss Notice

Elevated TNF-a and NK?

Discussion in 'Immunological' started by belbyr, Jan 16, 2023.

  1. belbyr

    belbyr Established Member (Voting Rights)

    Messages:
    99
    I was going back through test results before a hematologist appointment and was wondering if these had any clinical significance?

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]
     
    belbyr, Jan 16, 2023
    #1
    Peter Trewhitt likes this.
  2. shak8

    shak8 Senior Member (Voting Rights)

    Messages:
    2,218
    Location:
    California
    My gut (and non-professional, though RN) opinion is that those levels are not hugely above the upper limits of normal and so may not be important.
     
    shak8, Jan 16, 2023
    #2
    Peter Trewhitt likes this.
  3. hibiscuswahine

    hibiscuswahine Senior Member (Voting Rights)

    Messages:
    464
    Clinical significance is a tricky one, (I am a retired doctor, not an immunologist or a specialist in medicine). These are a) abnormal b) are the mild/moderately/severely abnormal? Likely in the mildly abnormal range, just out of normal range, not double or triple outside normal range.

    They need to be considered in the context of other blood tests for infection/illness, history of past and current illness (which would include verbal history and physical examination, past tests and treatment etc etc. )

    An immunologist/physician would likely compare your results to other clients with similar presentations, use their clinical experience, training and research to decide on the clinical significance.
     
    hibiscuswahine, Jan 16, 2023
    #3
    shak8, RedFox, Peter Trewhitt and 1 other person like this.
  4. Hutan

    Hutan Moderator Staff Member

    Messages:
    26,850
    Location:
    Aotearoa New Zealand
    If you have results outside of normal ranges, it is perfectly reasonable for you to ask a doctor that you are seeing about them. In fact, I think it's a good idea, as sometimes results can be overlooked, especially if the doctor you are seeing didn't order the tests. And, I think it can be useful to have googled the test a bit before you ask about the result, so that you have an idea of what the measure is and can understand any explanation you are given better.

    Results can bounce around a bit, so a few out of range results may perhaps not mean a lot, as Shak8 says. But, I think, if you have an out of range result, it's worth watching what happens in subsequent tests. I think it's reasonable to say to a doctor when they suggest a new blood test - 'my last XX result was above the normal range, so can we include that in this next blood test?'.
     
    Hutan, Jan 16, 2023
    #4
    Lilas, RedFox, Peter Trewhitt and 2 others like this.
  5. Creekside

    Creekside Senior Member (Voting Rights)

    Messages:
    958
    I had a cytokine assay done, and a few cytokines were elevated or mildly elevated. The immunologist's interpretation was "There's something going on, but it's not a pattern I'm familiar with, so I can't help you." I'm no expert either, but I expect that a few slightly elevated readings are not going to point you to a diagnosis, treatment, or anything else useful. Our cytokine levels vary too much day-to-day, during a day, and person vs person. Unfortunately, ME doesn't have a distinct cytokine marker, such as IL-whatever at 7x normal.
     
    Creekside, Jan 17, 2023
    #5

Share This Page