Thyroid Hormone Levels Help to Predict Outcome of Critically Ill Patients Undergoing Early Neurological Rehabilitation

Table 2

Patient characteristics for patients with low versus normal fT3 values.

	Low fT3 (<2.18 pg/ml) ()	Normal fT3 (2.18-3.98 pg/ml) ()	value
Age at event (years)	64 (53-76)	59 (49-72)	.059^a
Time since injury (days)	18 (12-27)	20 (17-32)	.005^a
Male	212	56	.923^b
Admission to ICU/IMC	220/93	45/37	.008^b
Etiology
Vascular	188	44	.294^b
Traumatic	98	27	.779^b
Anoxic	27	11	.191^b
Localization (left/right/bilateral)	102/102/109	27/28/27	.943^b
BI	10 (10-10)	10 (10-15)	.005^a
EFA	33 (27-43)	38 (31-50)	.001^a
CRS-R	7 (3-14)	10 (6-21)	.003^a
Complications	30 (24-36)	26 (23-31)	<.001^a
Hypophysis dysfunction (y/n)	18/295	2/80	.223^b
Thyroid function tests
fT3 (pg/ml)	1.60 (1.24-1.84)	2.50 (2.31-2.77)	<.001^a
fT4 (pg/ml)	11.5 (9.9-11.5)	13.8 (12.4-15.4)	<.001^a
TSH (mU/l)	1.72 (0.99-2.86)	1.90 (1.13-2.67)	.726^a
LOS (days)	84 (47-113)	70 (39-106)	.121^a
GOS	3 (2-3)	3 (3-3)	.084^a

^aMann-Whitney test (low vs normal fT3); ^bChi2 test. BI = Barthel Index, CRS-R = Coma Recovery Scale-Revised, EFA = Early Functional Abilities, fT3 = free triiodothyronine, fT4 = free thyroxine, GOS = Glasgow Outcome Scale, ICU = intensive care unit, IMC = intermediate care unit, LOS = length of stay, TSH = thyroid-stimulating hormone.