IL6 and infection: Of all inflammatory and infection-related parameters, both IL-6 (rho = 0.75, p = 0.066) and procalcitonin (rho = 0.714, p = 0.136, single outlier excluded) correlated with cortisol during the acute state of ECMO support, a trend t hat, in case of procalcitonin, persisted after 1 week (rho = 0.755, p = 0.031).