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

Table 3

Patient characteristics for patients with low, normal and high TSH values.

	Low TSH (<0.34 mU/l) ()	Normal TSH (0.34-4.82 mU/l) ()	High TSH (>4.82 mU/l) ()	value
Age at event (years)	70 (56-79)	62 (52-76)	61 (53-71)	.218^a
Time since injury (days)	17 (10-24)	19 (13-28)	23 (17-31)	.144^a
Male	14	233	21	.315^b
Admission to ICU/IMC	13/7	223/115	29/8	.307^b
Etiology
Vascular	15	198	19	.221^b
Traumatic	2	107	16	.036^b
Anoxic	3	33	2	.489^b
Localization (left/right/bilateral)	7/6/7	109/114/115	13/10/14	.942^b
BI	10 (10-10)	10 (10-15)	10 (10-10)	.116^a
EFA	34 (27-42)	34 (27-44)	35 (29-44)	.917^a
CRS-R	6 (3-14)	8 (4-14)	12 (5-19)	.290^a
Complications	29 (24-35)	29 (23-35)	28 (25-36)	.816^a
Hypophysis dysfunction (y/n)	1/19	320/18	36/1	.788^b
Thyroid function tests
fT3 (pg/ml)	1.81 (1.27-2.17)	1.75 (1.39-2.08)	1.76 (1.10-2.06)	.589^a
fT4 (pg/ml)	12.7 (10.5-15.4)	12.0 (10.5-13.6)	10.6 (9.2-13.7)	.056^a
TSH (mU/l)	0.19 (0.13-0.29)	1.68 (1.10-2.26)	5.48 (4.40-7.25)	<.001^a
LOS (days)	69 (30-100)	83 (49-113)	63 (41-105)	.244^a
GOS	3 (2-3)	3 (2-3)	3 (3-3)	.372^a

^aKruskal-Wallis test (low vs normal vs high TSH); ^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.