Endocrine Abstracts

Background: Girls with Turner Syndrome (TS) are at increased risk of primary ovarian failure. Previous studies have demonstrated that urinary gonadotrophins (UG) can be used as a non- invasive biochemical marker of pubertal status but their value in monitoring and managing girls with primary ovarian failure is unclear.

Aims: To determine the range of UG in girls with Turner Syndrome (TS) and its correlation to serum LH and FSH.

Patients and Methods: About 16 girls (median age 12.29 year; 5.27 −20.45 year) with Turner syndrome undergoing assessment of ovarian function had a non-timed spot urine sample for estimation of UG concurrently with estimation of plasma LH and FSH on one occasion (n=9) or consecutively (n=7).Urinary and plasma gonadotrophins (LH and FSH) were measured by chemiluminescent microparticle immunoassay on the Abbott architect i1600. UG corrected for creatinine excretion were compared to previously published age and sex-matched reference values.

Results: Median UG in TS girls were significantly greater than pubertal girls (ULH:Cr TS vs pubertal; 0.31 vs 0.09 P<0.05; UFSH:Cr TS vs pubertal 3.17 vs 0.20 P<0.01). ULH:Cr and UFSH:Cr did not correlate with age. There was a significant association between UG ULH:Cr and UFSH:Cr and plasma gonadotrophins (P<0.001 and P<0.05). Significant associations were found both for plasma and urinary LH and FSH: ULH:UCr and plasma LH r² 0.836; UFSH:UCr and plasma FSH r² 0.7345.

Conclusion: UG reflect plasma gonadotrophins concentrations in TS. UG estimation may represent a useful non-invasive method of assessing ovarian function in TS and monitoring the effectiveness of oestrogen replacement.