Table 5.

Deconvolution analysis of serum cortisol profiles in 143 healthy volunteers.

Parameter	Men (79)	Women (64)	P value
Pulse frequency (#/24 h)	16.4 ± 0.5	18.5 ± 0.6	0.005
Slow half-life (min)	64.4 ± 1.0	57.0 ± 1.3	0.008
Mode day (min)	11.2 ± 0.8	14.5 ± 1.3	0.054
Mode night (min)	12.1 ± 0.7	14.5 ± 1.2	0.19
Basal secretion (nmol/L/24 h)	903 ± 66	786 ± 94	0.007
Pulsatile secretion (nmol/L/24 h)	4011 ± 158	4950 ± 243	0.68
Total secretion (nmol/L/24 h)	4915 ± 195	4954 ± 243	0.92
Mean pulse mass (nmol/L)	253 ± 10	236 ± 13	0.17
Weibull lambda (#/24 h)	15.7 ± 0.4	16.9 ± 0.6	0.09
Weibull gamma (dimensionless)	1.816 ± 0.046	1.846 ± 0.051	0.59
ApEn (dimensionless)	0.921 ± 0.024	1.019 ± 0.026	0.007

Data are shown as mean and s.e.m. The two-tailed Student’s t-test was used for statistical comparisons on logarithmically transformed data.