Cortisol profiles in the critically ill after cardiac surgery
Heart surgery causes inflammation throughout the whole body, and inflammation is often the reason people stay in intensive care for a long time or even die after surgery. One of the ways the body defends itself against uncontrolled inflammation is through the steroid hormone cortisol. Cortisol is produced by the adrenal gland in a ‘diurnal’ rhythm - it is high first thing in the morning – making you feel awake - and it is low in the late afternoon and evening - making you feel sleepy. These highs and lows of cortisol happen because of an important pattern of ‘pulses’ of cortisol released from the adrenal gland. BHF Professor Gianni Angelini and his team have found that in patients having routine heart surgery, the adrenal gland responds differently to the hormone that normally stimulates cortisol production. The BHF have awarded the team a grant to investigate the way people produce their own steroid hormones who are not recovering well after heart surgery and find out their pattern of cortisol pulses. If they find that some patients do not produce enough cortisol or if their cortisol is not produced in the right pattern, they hope to design a way to use steroid therapy to fix this .
Project details
| Grant amount | £90,078 |
|---|---|
| Grant type | Project Grants |
| Application type | Project Grant |
| Start Date | 01 May 2015 |
| Duration | 1 year |
| Reference | PG/14/72/31080 |
| Status | Complete |
