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Table 1 Baseline characteristics at study enrollment and group differences

From: Increased glucocorticoid receptor expression in sepsis is related to heat shock proteins, cytokines, and cortisol and is associated with increased mortality

 

Healthy subjects (n = 35)

SIRS (n = 40)

Sepsis (n = 48)d

Statistic value x 2 or H 2

Effect size (w 2 or V)**

P value***

Age (years)e

35 (28–50)a

41 (32–53)c

58 (44–69)a, c

34

0.29

<0.001

Gender (male/female)

19/16

31/9

28/20

5.2

0.21

0.07

Mortality in ICU (died/survived (%))

0/35

5/35 (12.5%)

21/27 (43.8%)

10.2

0.34

0.001

Mortality in hospital (died/survived (%))

0/35

6/34 (15.8%)

29/19 (60.4%)

17.5

0.45

<0.001

LOS (days)

NA

15.5 (7–28.5)

18.5 (9.2–36.8)

2

0.03

0.16

APACHE II

NA

15 (10–18)c

21 (16–27)c

15

0.19

<0.001

SOFA

NA

9 (7–11)c

11 (9–13)c

11

0.14

0.001

SAPS III

NA

41 (43–58)c

41 (61–78)c

32

0.44

<0.001

CRP (mg/dl)

NA

7.1 (1.05–15)c

21 (8.8–27)c

10.5

0.15

0.001

PCT (ng/ml)

NA

0.9 (0.5–1.8)c

5.2 (1–34)c

7

0.23

0.008

Lactate

NA

2.4 (1.4–4.2)

2.8 (1.3–5)

0.23

0.00

0.63

Glucose (mg/dl)

NA

154 (128–189)c

219 (145–299)c

8.6

0.12

0.003

Albumin (g/dl)

NA

3 (2.3–3.4)c

2.5 (2.1–2.9)c

6.3

0.09

0.012

WBC (K/μl)

NA

11.4 (7.3–15.5)

10.9 (2.6–19.9)

0.12

0.00

0.91

hGRα mRNA (fold change)

0.50 (0.12–0.9)a

0.64 (0.32–0.77)

0.74 (0.52–1.23)a

8.3

0.08

0.016

hGR (MFI)

0.95 (0.76–1.9)a

1.1 (0.43–2.5)c

3.3 (1.6–4.6)a, c

9.6

0.28

0.008

Prolactin (ng/ml)

7.5 (5–10)a b

18.3 (11–25)b

15.4 (9–32)a

20.4

0.17

<0.001

Cortisol (μg/dl)

12.3 (9–15)a

16.2 (11–23)c

32.8 (21–67)a, c

38.6

0.33

<0.001

ACTH (pg/ml)

17.5 (13–33)b

10 (6–19)b, c

18.6 (10–38)c

10.4

0.09

–0.005

eHSP90α (ng/ml)

10.5 (1.2–23)a, b, c

32 (22–57)b, c

71 (31–124)a, c

39.5

0.33

<0.001

eHSP72 (ng/ml)

0.26 (0.14–0.41)a

0.29 (0.19–0.49)c

0.95 (0.41–2.5)a, c

32

0.29

<0.001

mHSP90α (MFI)

24 (12–82)

36 (10.5–64)

33 (7.6–56)

0.07

0.00

0.96

mHSP72 (MFI)

19.6 (13–32)

22.8 (11–52)

18 (11.7–30.7)

0.84

0.01

0.65

nHSP90α (MFI)

11 (5.4–25)

17 (4.8–25)

18.3 (6.8–38)

3.5

0.03

0.17

nHSP72 (MFI)

77 (44–110)a

75 (28–154)c

40 (25–65)a, c

13.7

0.12

0.001

IL-6 (pg/ml)

1.4 (0.98–2.5)a, b

77 (21–213)b

203 (60–539)a

72

0.60

<0.001

IL-10 (ng/ml)

0.01 (0.1–9.5) a

4.9 (0.1–11)c

48 (0.1–58)a, c

15.6

0.13

<0.001

IL-17 (ng/ml)

0.2 (0.2–33)

0.2 (0.2–6.4)

0.2 (0.2–7.8)

0.05

0.00

0.98

IFN-γ (pg/ml)

6.2 (0.44–9.8)

4.7 (0.13–7.8)c

9.7 (4–17)c

12

0.10

0.03

  1. APACHE Acute Physiology and Chronic Evaluation, CRP C-reactive protein, hGRα human glucocorticoid receptor α-isoform, eHSP extracellular heat shock protein, nHSP neutrophil-HSP, mHSP monocyte-HSP, IFN-γ interferon gamma, IL interleukin, MFI mean fluorescence intensity, PCT procalcitonin, SAPS III Simplified Acute Physiology Score, SIRS systematic inflammatory response syndrome, SOFA Sequential Organ Failure Assessment, WBC white blood cells
  2. **Per Cohen for df = 2, the effect size should be viewed as small 0.07, medium 0.21, and large 0.35
  3. ***Asymptomatic significance (two-sided test) using the independent samples Kruskal–Wallis test; a p value <0.05 was considered statistically significant
  4. a–cDunn-Bonferroni multiple comparisons (all pairwise): a p < 0.05 between healthy subjects and S groups, b p < 0.05 between healthy subjects and SIRS groups, c p < 0.05 between S and SIRS groups
  5. dSeptic shock, n = 25 (60%)
  6. eData are expressed as median (IQR, interquartile range)