What causes high C-reactive protein in children?

As we all know, there are various elements in our body, so in clinical diagnosis, whether these elements are higher or lower than the standard value is often used as the main basis for diagnosing the disease. For example, some parents take their children to the hospital for examination, and the doctor tells them that the child’s C-reactive protein is high, so the parents express their incomprehension. So, why do children have high C-reactive protein levels? Let’s take a look at the reasons below.

Many people have found that whether it is adults or children, there is often a test item called C-reactive protein in routine blood tests or biochemical tests, but most people do not know what C-reactive protein is and what is the significance of testing it? Zhang Kui, director of the laboratory department of Nanjing Drum Tower Hospital, introduced that C-reactive protein (C-neactveprotein, abbreviated as CRP, hereinafter referred to as CRP). More than 80 years ago, two foreign scholars discovered that a change would occur in the bodies of some patients infected with bacteria. The C polysaccharide on the bacterial cell wall would react with the protein in the patient's serum to form a precipitation reaction visible to the naked eye. This protein in human serum is now called C-reactive protein. It was later discovered that C-reactive protein would change in the human body regardless of severe bacterial infection, burns, surgical trauma, or various inflammations.

Therefore, the clinical significance of CRP test value is mainly: it can tell at a glance whether it is bacteria or virus. C-reactive protein can first help to identify whether there is inflammation in the body. C-reactive protein can increase rapidly within a few hours after the onset of various acute inflammations, tissue damage, surgical trauma, radiation damage, etc., and has the tendency to increase exponentially. When the lesion improves, it quickly returns to normal, and the degree of increase is positively correlated with the degree of infection. Therefore, CRP is considered to be one of the most important and sensitive markers of the human body's acute inflammatory response. CRP is correlated with other inflammatory factors such as total white blood cell count, erythrocyte sedimentation rate and polymorphonuclear leukocytes, especially with the total white blood cell count. Secondly, it can help identify the type of respiratory infection. CRP can be used for differential diagnosis of bacterial and viral infections: in bacterial infections, CRP levels increase; in viral infections, CRP does not increase or increases slightly. Therefore, CRP values ​​can help doctors identify the type of respiratory infection and give targeted medications and treatments.

In addition, C-reactive protein can also be used for rapid diagnosis of diseases such as sepsis. CRP levels in the body increase rapidly during sepsis, but blood culture may take at least 48 hours to detect. The CRP level in the body can also increase rapidly in bacterial meningitis, but the increase is not obvious in other types of meningitis. It is worth reminding that this indicator can also serve as a warning for malignant tumors. For example, most patients with malignant tumors have elevated CRP. For example, the combined detection of CRP and AFP can be used for the differential diagnosis of liver cancer and benign liver diseases. CRP determination has positive significance in the treatment and prognosis of tumors. CRP increases before surgery and decreases after surgery, and its response is not affected by radiotherapy, chemotherapy, and corticosteroid treatment, which helps clinically evaluate the progression of the tumor.