title: The systemic stress response to thermal injury in children.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Thermal injury is extremely stressful, but data characterizing the endocrine stress response to this injury in children are sparse. The objective of this study was to measure the effects of thermal injury on the levels of stress hormones in children and to assess the temporal changes associated with them.
  
  
  METHODS
  Twenty-three children, 13 girls and 10 boys aged between 5 months and 12 years 3 months (mean, 2 years 11 months), with burns covering 10-61% of their body surface (mean, 20.5%) were studied during the first 5 days following injury.
  
  
  METHODS
  The levels of arginine vasopressin, angiotensin II, cortisol, adrenaline, noradrenaline and dopamine were measured in sequential blood samples obtained from thermally injured children on admission and at specified time intervals during the 5 days of the investigation.
  
  
  RESULTS
  At admission the concentrations of all the hormones were high, and varied widely between individual patients. The geometric mean and 95% confidence intervals of admission hormone levels were as follows: arginine vasopressin 18.3 (8.3-40.7) pmol/l; angiotensin II 122.0 (56.0-266.2) pmol/l; cortisol 650.6 (473.0-895.0) nmol/l; dopamine 1.0 (0.1-8.0) nmol/l; adrenaline 6.4 (3.2-12.5) nmol/l and noradrenaline 2.3 (1.3-4.3) nmol/l. Although the concentrations of arginine vasopressin and cortisol returned to normal 24 to 36 h after admission, the levels of angiotensin II, adrenaline and dopamine fluctuated and remained higher than normal throughout the study (108 h).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Thermal injury results in the release of abnormally high levels of stress hormones in children. Although there are similarities between some of the data reported here and those reported in adults, higher levels of adrenaline and lower levels of noradrenaline than reported in adults suggest important differences too. These differences may need to be taken into account in the management of burn-injured children.
authors.affiliation: Department of Child Life and Health, University of Edinburgh, UK.
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Sedowofia
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Barclay
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Quaba
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Smith
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Stephen
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Thomson
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Watson
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: McIntosh
mesh_terms: D000804:Angiotensin II / Q000097:blood; D001127:Arginine Vasopressin / Q000097:blood; D015306:Biogenic Monoamines / Q000097:blood*; D002056:Burns / Q000097:blood*; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D004298:Dopamine / Q000097:blood; D004837:Epinephrine / Q000097:blood; D005260:Female; D006728:Hormones / Q000097:blood*; D006801:Humans; D006854:Hydrocortisone / Q000097:blood; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D009638:Norepinephrine / Q000097:blood; D013997:Time Factors
chemical_list: D015306:Biogenic Monoamines; D006728:Hormones; D000804:Angiotensin II; D001127:Arginine Vasopressin; D004298:Dopamine; D006854:Hydrocortisone; D009638:Norepinephrine; D004837:Epinephrine