Endocrine Abstracts

Background: 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 (18 boys and 349 girls) 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 within 0.3±1.1 S.D. Premature adrenarche (PA) was diagnosed in 112 (30.5%) children (eight boys, 104 girls), having the mean age of 7±1.2 years. Their mean height SDS was within 0.9±1.0 S.D. Central precocious puberty (CPP) was diagnosed in 127 (34.6%) children (six boys and 121 girls), with the mean age of 8.3±1.4 years. Mean height SDS in this group was within 0.9±1.1 S.D. and was significantly higher than in the PT group. Of the patients with CPP, 95.3% (121 patients; six boys and 115 girls) were diagnosed as idiopathic. Organic causes for CPP were detected in only 6 (4.7%) girls (two hypothalamic hamartoma, 1 had tuberous sclerosis, 1 had meningomyelocele, 1 had traumatic barin injury). Peripheral precocious puberty (PPP) was diagnosed in 11 children (four boys and seven girls), having the mean age of 7.3±2.2 years. The most common causes of PPP were congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH) (two boys and four girls), McCune Albright syndrome (three girls), testis tumour (one boy) and adrenal tumour (one boy).

Conclusion: The results of this study indicated that the most cases of 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.