What is a normal erythrocyte sedimentation rate?

The erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR), is the rate at which red blood cells in un-coagulated blood fall to the bottom of a Westergren tube in a period of 1 hour. this is a common hematology test which is a non-specific measure of inflammation.
ESR (mm/hr) </_ ?age in years
ESR reference ranges from a large 1996 study with weaker confidence limits
men at age 20 have a normal rate of 10, at age 55 it is 14, and at age 90 it is 19.
Women-------------------------------------15--------------------21-------------------------23
In new borns it is 0 to 2 mm/hr
Neonatal to puberty it is 3 to 13 mm/hr but other labs place an upper limit of 20.
(This info is from Wikipedia).

An elevated sed rate is not specific to any one disease. Possible causes include: * Infection * Inflammatory diseases, such as rheumatoid arthritis and lupus * Blood cancers, such as leukemia and lymphoma * Cancer that has spread (metastasized) An elevated sed rate may indicate an underlying problem. But further testing is needed to identify the cause of the problem.

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ESR in men is 10mm and in Women 20 It goes up with age and is lower in children When the sedimentation rate is elevated it indicates that there is inflammation somewhere in the system it will not indicate what or where the problem is. In the case where people have a history of a problem with Rheumatoid arthritis it is used to indicate the extent of inflammation from time to time, along with other tests.