Erythrocyte Sedimentation Rate

ESR

clinical

Updated 5/16/2026

Definition

A laboratory test result field stored in EHR and lab information systems measuring the rate at which red blood cells settle in a tube over one hour, reported in mm/hr. Used as an inflammatory marker in clinical documentation, diagnostic coding workflows, and chronic disease management data pipelines.

Standard Abbreviation

ESR

Database Usage

-- Example column naming
CREATE TABLE claims (
  clm_id VARCHAR(50),
  esr INTEGER,  -- Erythrocyte Sedimentation Rate (count/integer value)
  ...
);

-- Example in SELECT
SELECT
  clm_id,
  esr as erythrocyte_sedimentation_rate
FROM claims;

Common uses in healthcare data

Risk stratification and population health analytics
CMS-HCC risk adjustment and RAF score calculation
Quality measure attribution and HEDIS reporting
Clinical data warehouse schema design
Value-based care contract performance tracking

Example database column name

ISO-11179 snake_case standard

-- Recommended column name
esr

-- Example DDL
CREATE TABLE healthcare_data (
  record_id   VARCHAR(50)   NOT NULL,
  esr          INTEGER,  -- Erythrocyte Sedimentation Rate (count/integer value)
  created_dt  TIMESTAMP     NOT NULL DEFAULT NOW()
);

Column names follow the ISO-11179 naming convention: lowercase, underscore-separated, using the standard abbreviation as a prefix where applicable.

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