Endocrine Abstracts

Introduction: Although data from developed countries about precocious puberty (PP) are abundant, data from developing countries are scarce. The aim of our study was to analyze the frequency of the variants of PP in children who had applied to our department.

Patients and methods: Retrospective analysis of 367 children (349 girls and 18 boys) with features of PP referred for evaluation to our clinic between the years 2006–2012 was performed.

Results: Premature telarche (PT) was diagnosed in 117 (30.5%) girls with the mean age of 3.9±2.8 years. Their mean height SDS was 0.3±1.1 S.D. Premature adrenarche (PA) was diagnosed in 112 (30.5%) children (104 girls and eight boys), having the mean age of 7±1.2 years. Their mean height SDS was 0.9±1.0 S.D. Central precocious puberty (CPP) was diagnosed in 127 (34.6%) children (121 girls and six boys), with the mean age of 8.3±1.4 years. Of the patients with CPP, 95.3% (121 patients; 115 girls and six boys) were diagnosed as idiopathic. Organic causes for CPP were detected in only 6 (4.7%) girls. Of these six girls, two had hypothalamic hamartoma, one had astrocytoma, one had tuberous sclerosis, one had meningomylocele and one had traumatic brain injury. Peripheral precocious puberty (PPP) was diagnosed in 11 children (seven girls and four boys), having the mean age of 7.3±2.2 years. Congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH) was diagnosed in four girls and two boys, and McCune–Albright syndrome in three girls.

Conclusion: The results of this study indicated that most of cases with PP are affected with CPP especially with idiopathic form of it, followed by PT. CAH might be the most frequent cause of PPP in our population as expected.