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...

Background: Sepsis is hallmarked by an immediate and sustained decrease in total-, HDL-, and LDL- cholesterol, associated with poor outcome and suggested to be a potential contributor to adrenal failure and muscle weakness in the critically ill. Although the underlying mechanisms are unclear, this sepsis-induced hypocholesterolemia has been postulated to be due to an increased conversion of cholesterol to cortisol. We hypothesized that hydrocortisone (HC) trea...