Endocrine Abstracts

Critical illnesses are characterized by increased systemic cortisol availability, a vital part of the stress response. ‘Relative adrenal failure’ (later termed critical illness-related corticosteroid insufficiency or CIRCI) is a condition in which the systemic availability of cortisol is assumed to be insufficiently high to face the stress of the illness, and is most typically thought to occur in the acute phase of septic shock. Researchers suggested that CIRCI can b...