Effects of corticosteroids on serum cortisol in patients undergoing rheumatic valve replacement / 中华内分泌外科杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To investigate the effects of glucocorticoid on the changes of serum cortisol and 24-hour urinary cortisol in patients undergoing rheumatic valve replacement.Methods 86 patients undergoing rheumatic valve replacement were respectively given 1000 mg methylprednisolone during extracorporeal circulation and intravenously injected 10 mg dexamethasone on the first three days after operation.The enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) was taken to detect the serum cortisol concentration and 24-hour urinary cortisol on the day before operation,the 1st,3rd,5th,and 7th day after surgery.The postoperative complications such as the surgical incision and pulmonary infection were observed during the recovery days.Results Serum cortisol concentrations for patients with different preoperative cardiac function classifications had no significant difference at each observation point during the perioperative period (P＞0.05).Serum cortisol concentration showed a downward trend during the first 3 days after surgery.The serum cortisol level on the 3rd day after surgery was lower compared with that before surgery (P＜0.05),whereas 3 days later the serum cortisol concentration increased gradually and got back to the preoperative levels on the 5th day after surgery.The 24-hour urinary cortisol rose to the peak level on the 1st day after surgery,then decreased to the preoperative level on the 3rd day after surgery (P＞0.05).All the patients recovered.No one died or had complications such as pulmonary infection or incisions healing problems.Conclusions The effects of corticosteroids on perioperative serum cortisol levels in patients with rheumatic heart disease were not clearly correlated with preoperative cardiac function classification.Using glucocorticoid in the first three days after surgery reveals transient inhibitory effect on serum cortisol secreting,however,the cortisol level can quickly go back to the preoperative level after stopping giving glucocorticoid.