Table 1.

Clinical data of patient groups

	Critically ill non-septic n = 10	Severe sepsis n = 16	p
Age	61 +/- 5	56 +/- 4	ns
APACHE II score at inclusion	12 +/- 1	26 +/- 2	< 0.05
SAPS II score at inclusion	23 +/- 2	57 +/- 4	< 0.01
SOFA score at inclusion	3 +/- 1	15 +/- 1	< 0.001
Mechanically ventilated at inclusion (n)	6	16
Vasopressor treatment at inclusion (n)	0	13
Antibiotic treatment at inclusion (n)	8	16
Steroid dose* 3 mg/kg/24hours (n)	0	8
Serum interleukin-6 at inclusion (pg/ml)	20.77 +/- 13.37	4304 +/- 2466	< 0.001
Serum procalcitonin at inclusion (μg/l)	0.25 +/- 0.18	39.38 +/- 23.56	< 0.001
White blood cell count at inclusion (G/l)	11.94 +/- 1.17	14.94 +/- 3.09	ns
Lymphocyte count at inclusion (G/l]	1.47 +/- 0.19	0.88 +/- 0.24	< 0.05

Mean +/- standard error of the mean. APACHE II = Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation II; ns = not significant; SAPS II = Simplified Acute Physiology Score II; SOFA = Sepsis related Organ Failure Assessment.

* hydrocortisone; before or at the time of sample acquisition.