AIM  Glucocorticoids (GCs) are often used for the treatment of rheumatic disorders. However, doses are prescribed, which may suppress the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis. After GC withdrawal, recovery of the HPA axis may be delayed putting the patient at risk for adrenal insufficiency. We assessed adrenal function and factors influencing adrenal responsiveness after termination of GC ...

In thalassemia major (TM) patients, impairment of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis secondary to hemosiderosis of the pituitary gland and/or adrenal glands is well established. In TM, hypocortisolism is paucisymptomatic or causes nonspecific symptoms. Although adrenal insufficiency (AI) is rare; an acute crisis may occur in the event of acute cardiac decompensation, stress, or sepsi...

OBJECTIVE This study examines how the social environment is related to allostatic load (AL), a multisystem index of biological risk. METHOD A national sample of adults (N = 949) aged 34-84 rated their relationships with spouse, family, and friends at 2 time points 10 years apart. At the second time point, participants completed a biological protocol in which indices of autonomic, hypothalamic...

The ontogeny of adrenocortical responsiveness in lambs was studied from 24 hr of age to maturity. Throughout the neonatal period, the adrenal axis was responsive to exogenous ACTH and the stresses of both restraint and exposure to open field testing. Newborn lambs both had higher resting levels of plasma corticosteroids and responded to the test stimuli with greater increases in corticosteroids...

It is challenging to measure long-term endocrine stress responses in animals. We investigated whether cortisol extracted from dog hair reflected the levels of activity and stress long-term, during weeks and months. Hair samples from in total 59 German shepherds were analysed. Samples for measuring cortisol concentrations were collected at three occasions and we complemented the data with indivi...