Fig. 3.

Adrenocortical function parameters from day 7 in ICU until ICU discharge or death in long-stay (ICU ≥ 4w) patients who did not receive glucocorticoids, a compared for the presence or absence of sepsis, b compared for the presence or absence of septic shock, and c compared for survivors and non-survivors. Data are shown as mean ± SEM on a logarithmic scale. ICU intensive care unit. The horizontal blue-shaded areas represent the mean ± SEM of results from the 20 healthy subjects. The numerical P values are those for the comparisons between patient groups