Blood tests for success of humira?

[sammies]

Im going to sound naive and uninformed but here goes it.

Are there blood tests to see how well the humira is working, how well it is inhibiting the TNF?

I know there are blood tests to see if one is developing HACA, an antibody we don't want, right? Evidence of this antibody means the humira is not working or that the body doesn't want the humira around?

I'm trying to read medical journal reports but ultimately I'm not sure I "get it."

.????

 

[Thermo]

It would help if your doctor had taken some base line tests before starting Humira. One of the best reflections of how Humira is doing is the SED rate. If Humira is doing what it should be then your inflammation markers should be down to next to nothing. If it's still elevated a bit then you know there is still something going on. Humira effectively lowered my SED rate to .5 from 58

 

[Dennis2757]

What are the side effects of Humira and the other thing that has been suggested is Remicade,, my boy is 14 years old was diagnoised a year ago.

 

[Patricia56]

Hi Sammies,

The short answer is no, not in the way that you mean. Yes there are some tests that can measure - not very well at this point - the presence of antibodies. And the presence of antibodies doesn't always seem to mean that the medicine, in this case Humira, isn't working.

The way you measure whether Humira is working is by looking at whether your Crohn's is in remission.

If your CD is in remission then it is assumed that the Humira is working.

Your doctor is doing lots of labs all the time right? Do you get copies of those?

If you do, you can look at them and see if there are changes happening over time.

Your doctor would use a lot of different labs to help decide if the inflammation is going down and you are getting into remission. Many of these labs should be changing so they are back in the normal range. So over time the results would probably show:

lower absolute lymphocyte count (might be below the normal range)
lower absolute monocyte count (might be below the normal range)
lower CrP
increased albumin
increased ferritin
lower WBC
increased RBC
lower ESR (this lab takes a very long time to drop into the normal range and is not as helpful a measure of inflammation as CrP)

 

[Patricia56]

Dennis2757 -

Welcome to the Forum. I suggest that you start a new thread on the Parent's forum. I'm sure you will get tons of support and answers.

See you there I hope.

All the best.