What was your egf # my wectra test was 44 but my egf # was 18, My doctor said that the imflamation was low so I was in Remission. I' just as confused as anyone

Hi Didyann

EGF is 110 and VEGF is 230.

Its one diagnostic tool among many. Some rheumys give it more credence than they should. My scores were off by a mile. It took 8mo of convincing my Dr of that just this week. She was a big proponent until she saw my outrageous swelling this week and finally decided maybe its not the best tool to base my treatment on after all. My score was 14 but efg was 100. She only talked about the score not the efg # (But I did let her do it again for a comparison) Because of her myopia I think other things were overlooked regarding my treatment. I think meds & other factors can affect it just like your esr/crp numbers. Inflammation isnt always visible to the naked eye or the blood work. For me anyway. Everyone is different. Its relatively new but it was marketed quite aggressively. $1000+ is an expensive blood test that doesn't really tell you much data. Mine tried selling it to me during my consult even before she looked at my labs that were off the charts. I get leery of a Dr pushing in a direction of something brand new & not offering alternatives. That's my personal opinion anyway. (This week she was pushing was Xelijanz...uh no..not til its been proven to my satisfaction)

RASally will have more to add I'm sure. She's the house research guru. You might want to search old threads to find earlier discussions.

when I mentioned this test to my RD many visits ago he tried to say he never heard of it-I said REALLY? I read about it in 3 different magazines in your waiting room! He had me bring one in and then poo pooed it saying it was not conclusive.

Thinks - same here. Mine knew about it but said that they can get the same bloodwork done without combining and read those results based on what the patient's standard was....that all patients can't be thrown into the same scenario.

Anonyman - my take on the Vectra scores is that the overall number (mine was around the same as yours) is not as useful as the protein percentages that are provided along with the overall score. Finding out that my body overproduces IL-6 proteins, not TNF, directed my rheumy toward treatment with Actemra. Otherwise, it would have required about another year of trying and failing other meds to get my doctor and insurance company to get me on Actemra. Actemra turned out to be the most effective treatment I'd done up to that point, so I personally found tremendous value in my Vectra test outcome.