Clinical and laboratory characteristics of children referred for early puberty: Preponderance in 7-8 years of age

Objective: the aim of this study was to evaluate the girls referred to the pediatric outpatient clinic with a presumptive diagnosis of early puberty due to early onset of breast development or pubarche. methods: within the study period,we evaluated 289 subjects referred for concerns about early onset of puberty. history,anthropometric data,bone age (ba),hormones including luteinizing hormone (lh),follicle-stimulating hormone (fsh),estradiol,and dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate,as well as pelvic ultrasonography (usg)-derived ovarian and uterine volumes were analyzed. results: of the 289 girls referred for early onset of pubertal development,64 (22.1%) had false alarms for puberty. of the remaining 225 girls,41 (18.2%) were diagnosed as premature pubarche,56 (24.9%) as premature thelarche (pt),and 128 (56.9%) as precocious puberty (pp). girls with early-onset puberty had more advanced ba,greater uterine and ovarian volumes,and also higher lh values than subjects with pp and p t. nearly half of these girls were 7-8 years of age. body mass index (bmi) standard deviation score was significantly higher in the pp cases. conclusions: there is a need for primary care physicians to be more knowledgeable on puberty and on puberty problems. there seems to be a preponderance of pp in 7-8-year-old children. increased bmi may have a role in the trend towards earlier onset of puberty. © journal of clinical research in pediatric en docrinology.