Endocrine Abstracts

Introduction: Turner syndrome (TS) is female genetic disorder arrising from loss of X-chromosome material, associated with characteristic physical neuropsychological features.

Objective: Examine peculiarities of body composition, cognitive functions, emotional state, quality of life (QoL) of TS patients after discontinued growth hormone (GH) therapy.

Patients and methods: Eighteen girls (age 21.47±4.09 years) with diagnosis of TS established in childhood. GH therapy for at least five years (discontinued immediately to the beginning of the study).

Height, weight, waist-to-hip ratio, body composition, cognitive functions (trail making test, TMT), emotional state (profile of mood state, POMS), QoL (special questionnaire for growth disturbances) in TS patients were compared to that of controls.

Results: Height (148.8±5.7 vs 168.4±5.1 cm, P<0.001), weight (50.4±7.9 vs 61.3±8.6 kg, P<0.001) in TS girls were significantly lower than in controls, but differences in body mass index were not significant. Lean body mass (36.31±4.02 vs 47.02±4.47 kg, P<0.001), water body mass (27.37±1.73 vs 32.39±2.52 kg, P<0.001) in TS patients were significantly lower than in controls. Waste-to-hip ratio in TS girls was significantly higher (0.82±0.06 vs 0.74±0.04, P<0.001) than in controls.

In emotional state tension-anxiety (10.6±7.2 vs 6.7±3.9, P=0.02), depression-dejection (14.7±11.9 vs 8.5±6.3, P=0.02) were significantly higher, vigour-activity (13.1±4.8 vs 16.1±4.4, P=0.04) significantly lower in TS patients than in controls. TMT score (96.9±44.6 vs 58.1±15.4, P=0.001) was significantly higher (worse psychomotoric speed) in research group than in controls. QoL (9.5±5.2 vs 6.3±4.2, P=0.03) in TS girls was significantly worse than in healthy.

Conclusion: In conclusion, TS patients after discontinued GH therapy has lower height, weight, higher waist-to-hip ratio, lower lean body mass and water body mass, impaired cognitive functioning, altered emotional state, lower quality of life in comparison to normal girls of the same age.