Table 3.

Systemic response to cardiac surgery

	Placebo (n = 15)		Methylprednisolone (n = 15)		Between group analysis, p value
	Preoperative	Postoperative	Preoperative	Postoperative
Serum TNF-α (ng/L)#	2.45 (0.88)	2.15 (0.68)	2.36 (1.14)	1.54 (0.83)***	< 0.001
Serum IL-6 (ng/L)#	0.86 (0.82)	49.1 (48)***	0.99 (0.85)	14.6 (8.8)***	< 0.001
Serum IL-8 (ng/L)	14.2 ± 5.4	40.9 ± 23***	12.4 ± 4.8	19.2 ± 15	0.004
Serum S-100B (μg/L)#	0.060 (0.027)	0.116 (0.07)*	0.044 (0.03)	0.126 (0.06)**	0.48
Serum albumin (g/L)	43.2 ± 4.8	35.1 ± 4.5***	43.2 ± 3.3	35.9 ± 2.9***	0.65
Serum NSE (μg/L)#	14.9 (14)	27.6 (7.6)*	13.8 (8.2)	31.1 (12)*	0.27

Values are mean ± SD or median (IQR)#; not normally distributed data—non-parametric tests used. IL-6 interleukin-6, IL-8 interleukin-8, NSE neuron-specific enolase, TNF-α tumor necrosis factor alpha. *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001, within-group