Table 3.

Summary statistics for dynamic hormone secretion of ACTH and cortisol

	ACTH			Cortisol
Hormone secretion characteristic	Critically ill	Healthy volunteer	P-value	Critically ill	Healthy volunteer	P-value
Pulse frequency mean (SD)	12.4 (2.31) pulses/24 h	13.08 (2.05) pulses/24 h	.38	14.82 (4.65) pulses/24 h	15.23 (2.82) pulses/24 h	.16
Pulse Regularity Mean (SD)	1.3 (0.2)	1.43 (0.28)	0.27	1.80 (0.54)	1.91 (0.41)	0.12
Total Secretion Mean (SD)	1036.4 (737.6) pg/ml /24hrs	1502.3 (1152.2) pg/ml /24hrs	0.2	14447.0 (5709.3) nmol/L/24hrs	5915.5 (1686.7) nmol/L/24hrs	<0.0001
Pulsatile Secretion Mean (SD)	589.3 (479.15) pg/ml /24hrs	770.42 (579.39) pg/ml /24hrs	0.35	5193.1 (3018.5) nmol/L/24hrs	4955.1 (1753.6) nmol/L/24hrs	0.43
Basal Secretion Mean (SD)	447.2 (371.5) pg/ml /24hrs	731.85 (650.57) pg/ml /24hrs	0.08	9253.4 (3348.8) nmol/L/24hrs	960. (589.0) nmol/L/24hrs	<0.0001
Mass Per pulse Mean (SD)	45.0 (37.5) pg/ml /24hrs/pulse	60.01 (55.38) pg/ml /24hrs/pulse	0.34	316.4 (123.8) nmol/L /24hrs/pulse	300.6 (107.1) nmol/L /24hrs/pulse	0.30