Observations on the Erythrocyte Sedimentation Rate in Infancy and Childhood: With Special Reference to the Use of Landau's Modification of the Linzenmeier-Raunert Micromethod
Within the last two decades, considerable attention has been directed, by observers in many countries, to the value of the sedimentation test in disease. This test depends on the observation that, in a column of blood which has been prevented from clotting by the addition of citrate or other anticoagulant, the red cells sediment more rapidly in disease than in health. Owing mainly to the methods in general use, which demand venipuncture, this attention has been principally directed to disease as it occurs in the adult, and only a relatively small amount of investigation has been carried out in children. The present study, performed during a period of one year in Wards 5 and 6 of the Royal Hospital for Sick Children, Glasgow, was undertaken with the following objects (1) To investigate the methods applicable to children, and to discover, if possible, a method which would be at once simple and efficient. (2) To determine the value of the test as an aid to diagnosis and prognosis in the diseases of childhood
