Critical care : the official journal of the Critical Care Forum
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Randomized Controlled Trial
Glucocorticoid treatment increases cholesterol availability during critical illness: effect on adrenal and muscle function.
Hypocholesterolemia hallmarks critical illness though the underlying pathophysiology is incompletely understood. As low circulating cholesterol levels could partly be due to an increased conversion to cortisol/corticosterone, we hypothesized that glucocorticoid treatment, via reduced de novo adrenal cortisol/corticosterone synthesis, might improve cholesterol availability and as such affect adrenal gland and skeletal muscle function. ⋯ Glucocorticoid treatment partially attenuated critical illness-induced hypocholesterolemia, but at a cost of impaired adrenal function, suppressed muscle regeneration and exacerbated loss of body mass.