A simple, easy test in the privacy of your own home

C-Reactive Protein (CRP) is an acute phase protein produced mainly by the liver, the concentration of which increases as a consequence of injuries, infections and inflammations. Veda Lab CRP Screen C-Reactive Protein Home Test Kit is useful in assisting the diagnosis of your illness, as it helps to determine the origin of a possible infection. Although it is not a specific marker, it is used as a generic diagnostic indicator of infections and inflammations. Levels of this protein in blood are high during bacterial infections, while they are restrained during viral infections. For this reason C-Reactive Protein assay can be a useful tool in defining the cause of an inflammation.

The CRP Screen Self-Test kit is a simple finger-prick blood test that will tell you in as little as 5 minutes whether your C-reactive protein (CRP) levels are normal or raised. High levels of CRP are a non-specific indicator of inflammation and are often found during a bacterial, rather than viral infection, and can help your doctor decide whether you may require antibiotics or not. Antibiotics have no effect on viral infections and unnecessary prescribing contributes to antibiotic resistance. Doctors also sometimes use a CRP test to check for sepsis.

Even if your CRP test result is normal, symptoms of sepsis are a medical emergency - call 999 or go to A&E if an adult or older child has any of these symptoms of sepsis:

• acting confused, slurred speech or not making sense
• blue, grey, pale or blotchy skin, lips or tongue – on brown or black skin, this may be easier to see on the palms of the hands or soles of the feet
• a rash that does not fade when you roll a glass over it, the same as meningitis
• difficulty breathing, breathlessness or breathing very fast

How To Use The Screen C-Reactive Protein Home Test Kit

To use your test, you simply use the single-use finger pricker supplied to obtain a blood sample and apply to the lateral flow test cassette. Your result is shown as a series of lines on the test cassette. The instruction leaflet explains how to interpret the series of lines to measure your CRP level. The CRP Screen self-test has an overall agreement of more than 98% compared with laboratory tests.