Vectra D & Other Blood Tests & More Tests

My disease activity according to the new Vectra DA blood test for Rheumatoid Arthritis Disease Activity

Yesterday I went back to the Rheumatologist to get results of my blood tests and to have an ultra sound done on my thyroid. We went over the Vectra DA blood test, which I scored a 33. This means my Rheumatoid Arthritis aka Rheumatoid Autoimmune Disease is at a moderate level with the current cocktail of drugs. I will be having another one in three months to get a new number. It looks like anything above 44 is high activity (severe) and under 29 is low or mild activity. It sounded like the goal is to get it under 10. You can find more out about the Vectra DA test on their website. Vectra DA does have a program in place for financial assistance. For an example a single person having an income less than $54,450 a year could qualify.

Most of my other blood test came out good. Rheumatoid Factor still negative, no TB, no hepatitis, no lupus, anti-CCP negative, Cholesterol good, etc. The bone denisty test was good also.

The tests that were not good were:

• Vitamin D was low 23.4 ng/mL which should be over 30.
• Thyroid study showed Thyroxine T4 at 11.6 mcg/dL which is high, it should be between 4.5 and 10.9
• CRP Hi Sensitive was 5.6  mg/dL which is high, should be less than 1. Greater than 3.0 means high risk for cardiovascular disease.
• My lipid study showed my Cholesterol was good, but my Triglycerides are high at 178 and should be under 150 and my HDL Cholesterol was low at 40 and should be greater than 40?

Vitamin D issue fix will be to add a Vitamin D supplement at 2,000 IU a day to my cocktail. Also adding an Omega 3/6/9 supplement. and I have a refill for the Flexeril which was added to treatment at my last appointment 2 weeks ago. It has taken that much time for me to get used to the muscle relaxers and it does take 3 a day at 10 mg to be almost pain free. I have not been this pain free since fall of 2010 so it is a nice change.

I am not sure what the lipid or thyroid study or the CRP Hi Sensitive means. Maybe the thyroid is off because of the nodule on it? After finding out the blood test results I had an ultrasound done on the thyroid and she also did I think it was called an ECG but not sure. I will get those results in 2 weeks. She did ask if my previous scan reports gave a size of the nodule, I did not remember a size mentioned for it only the size of lymph nodes that are swollen. She said it should be checked every 6 months to make sure it is not growing. But nodules in the thyroid can happen with Rheumatoid Arthritis.  She noted that besides the nodule in the right lobe of my thyroid that I had a very tiny cyst on my left lobe and that my heart looked good.

Share/Bookmark