Background: The erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) is a widely used simple, inexpensive laboratory test often requested in various clinical conditions. Many automated ESR analyzers are being evolved for measuring ESR to improve efficacy.

Aims and Objective: To evaluate the performance of the Automated ESR Analyzer and to assess and compare accuracy of ESR readings by Automated ESR.

Material and Methods: The 425 samples from 425 consecutive eligible patients fulfilling the inclusion criteria were collected at a tertiary care center in Jaipur and data was analyzed.

Results: Bland and Altman analysis revealed low degree of agreement between two methods especially for ESR values > 25 mm/hr. For all the 425 samples, the mean difference and 95% limits of agreement of both the methods were -0.49±10.09 (95% limits of agreement, -10.58 to 9.60). For ESR values > 25 mm/hr, the 95% limits of agreement was -11.52 to 10.05. For ESR values ≤ 25 mm/hr the 95% limits of agreement was -4.78 to 5.17, which showed a very good agreement between both the methods.

Conclusion: The Automated Analyzer tend to underestimate the Westergren method ESR values which were ≥ 25 mm/hr. The agreement for ESR value ≤ 25 mm/hr was very good. Hence a correction factor should be applied for ESR values while using Automated Analyzer especially for higher ESR values.

Keywords: Comparison, ESR, Westergren, Automated.

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Dr Anita Harsh

Associate Professor, Department of Pathology, SMS Medical College Jaipur