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Endocrine Abstracts (2022) 81 S17.1 | DOI: 10.1530/endoabs.81.S17.1

ECE2022 Symposia Infections and endocrinology (3 abstracts)

Sepsis as a pan-endocrine illness

Weronika Wasyluk 1,2


1Department of Internal Medicine in Nursing, Faculty of Health Sciences, Medical University of Lublin, Lublin, Poland; 2Doctoral School, Medical University of Lublin, Lublin, Poland


Sepsis is defined as “life-threatening organ dysfunction caused by a dysregulated host response to infection”. This response is expressed, inter alia, in the endocrine system and affects almost all endocrine axes. Endocrine dysfunction, in turn, may contribute to other aspects of dysregulated host response to infection, such as metabolism. Endocrine disorders in the course of sepsis are particularly noticeable in the area of the hypothalamic-pituitary-target tissue axis. Disorders of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis manifest mainly by hypercortisolemia in the acute phase. In the hypothalamic-pituitary-thyroid axis the most typical manifestation is a triiodothyronine concentration decrease and reverse triiodothyronine concentration increase. In terms of the somatrotropic axis, a change in the secretion pattern of growth hormone and peripheral resistance to this hormone is characteristic. Hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal axis disorders are expressed by the stress-induced amenorrhea in women and the reduction in testosterone level in men. Other changes include insulin resistance and catecholamine and β-adrenergic stimulation disorders. It is also worth bearing in mind that a patient’s endocrine profile is not the same for the entire duration of the disease, but changes over time, which is noticeable especially between the acute and the chronic phase. It is suggested that some of these changes are adaptive, but there is no doubt that all of them may have an impact on the patient’s clinical condition. Since the endocrine system is responsible for the homeostasis of the system, disturbances in its scope contribute to the dysregulation of other functions of the body, including metabolism, which, according to some authors, is one of the main pillars of the pathophysiology of sepsis. As stated by Singer et al., a more sophisticated understanding of the sequence, dynamics and interaction between the occurring metabolic, hormonal and immunological changes would provide a logical basis for patient-tailored therapeutic interventions, therefore this issue undoubtedly requires further researches.

Volume 81

European Congress of Endocrinology 2022

Milan, Italy
21 May 2022 - 24 May 2022

European Society of Endocrinology 

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