Serum cortisol concentrations during induced hypothermia for perinatal asphyxia are associated with neurological outcome in human infants

Figures & data

Figure 1. Serum cortisol concentrations within each subgroup at different time-points. T₀: admission, <6 h after birth; T₁: +24 h, T₂: +48 h, T₃: +72 h; T₄: +96 h during induced hypothermia. All comparisons are within sub-group between T₀ data and data at all other time-points (Wilcoxon test). n = 8, 10 in sub-groups A (good outcome at 6–18 months) and B (poor outcome), respectively. Hypothermia started immediately after blood sample collection at T₀ and ended at T₃. Error bars represent 95% CI for median. #p = 0.06, vs T₀.

Table 1. Statistical comparisons between subgroups for serum cortisol concentration values at each time-point (T₀: admission, <6 h after birth; T₁: +24 h, T₂: +48 h, T₃: +72 h; T₄: +96 h) during induced hypothermia (started after blood sample collection at T₀ and ended at T_3; Mann–Whitney test).

	Subgroup A Serum cortisol concentration (ng/mL)		Subgroup B Serum cortisol concentration (ng/mL)
	Median	IQR	Median	IQR	p Value (Mann–Whitney test)
T0	615	615–615	615	615–615	0.834
T1	28.7	24.3–179.2	406.5	322.1–615	0.008*
T2	17.9	14.7–83.8	94.3	32.4–410	0.143
T3	13.6	9.9–67.4	43.4	21.7–83.4	0.248
T4	51.7	31.4–201	116.1	89.7–269	0.361

IQR, interquartile range. n = 8, 10 in sub-groups A (good outcome at 6–18 months) and B (poor outcome), respectively. The bold value is the only with statistical significance (p < 0.05).