Table 1.

Baseline thyroid function assessed at hospital admission according to the absence or presence of steroid treatment in the entire patient cohort (A, n = 183) and in the subgroup of survivors seen at follow-up (B, n = 75). In brackets is reported the number (n) of patients in whom hormone measurement was available. P values have been calculated between patients taking vs not taking steroids at the time of thyroid assessment.

A	No steroids	Steroids	P
TSH mIU/L median (IQR)	1.12 (0.57–1.99) (n = 120)	0.51 (0.34–1.03) (n = 63)	< 0.01
FT4 ng/L mean ± s.d.	13.7 ± 3.8 (n = 38)	12.1 ± 3.1 (n = 57)	0.02
FT3 ng/L mean ± s.d.	1.87 ± 0.37 (n = 24)	1.71 ± 0.42 (n = 57)	0.11
B	No steroids	Steroids	P
TSH mIU/L median (IQR)	1.15 (0.54–1.77) (n = 57)	0.56 (0.36–0.78) (n = 18)	< 0.01
FT4 ng/L mean ± s.d.	15.0 ± 4.1 (n = 14)	12.0 ± 3.7 (n = 17)	0.04
FT3 ng/L mean ± s.d.	2.0 ± 0.37 (n = 10)	1.88 ± 0.51 (n = 17)	0.50

FT3, free-triiodothyronine; FT4, free-thyroxine; IQR, interquartile range; s.d., standard deviation; TSH, thyroid-stimulating hormone.