ORIGINAL ARTICLES—LIVER, PANCREAS, AND BILIARY TRACT Critical Illness-Related Corticosteroid Insufficiency in Patients With Cirrhosis and Variceal Bleeding

BACKGROUND & AIMS: Relative adrenal insufficiency (AI) occurs in patients with cirrhosis with sepsis, but not with variceal bleeding. We evaluated adrenal function in cirrhotic patients with and without bleeding. METHODS: Twenty cirrhotic patients with variceal bleeding were evaluated using the short synacthen test (SST) and 10 using the low-dose synacthen test (LDSST) followed by SST. The control group included 60 stable cirrhotic patients, assessed by LDSST (n 50) or SST (n 10), and 14 healthy volunteers. AI was diagnosed using SST, based on peak cortisol levels 18 g/dL in nonstressed patients or max 9 g/dL or a total cortisol level 10 g/dL in stressed patients with variceal bleeding—the current criteria for critical illness-related corticosteroid insufficiency. Using LDSST, diagnosis was based on peak concentrations of cortisol 18 g/dL in nonstressed patients and 25 g/dL (or max 9 g/dL) in patients with variceal bleeding. We evaluated patients with levels of serum albumin 2.5 g/dL, to indirectly assess cortisol binding. RESULTS: All healthy volunteers had normal results from LDSSTs and SSTs. Patients with variceal bleeding had higher median baseline concentrations of cortisol (15.4 g/dL) than stable cirrhotic patients (8.7 g/dL, P .001) or healthy volunteers (10.1 g/dL, P .01). Patients with variceal bleeding had higher median peak concentrations of cortisol than stable cirrhotic patients (SST results of 32.7 vs 21 g/dL, P .001; LDSST results of 9.3 vs 8.1 g/dL; nonsignificant), with no differences in max in either test. These differences were greater with variceal bleeding than in stable cirrhotic patients with AI. Subanalysis of patients with albumin levels 2.5 g/dL did not change these differences. CONCLUSIONS: Cirrhotic patients with variceal bleeding have AI. Despite higher baseline concentrations of serum cortisol and subnormal max values, they did not have adequate responses to stress, and therefore had critical illness-related corticosteroid insufficiency.