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Pronounced Adrenarche and Precocious Pubarche in Boys

1999; Karger Publishers; Volume: 51; Issue: 5 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1159/000023377

1663-2826

Neus Potau, Lourdes Ibáñez, Susanna Riqué, Carmen Sánchez-Ufarte, Francis de Zegher,

Hypothalamic control of reproductive hormones

In girls, pronounced adrenarche with precocious pubarche (PP) has been related to reduced fetal growth and to a cluster of endocrine-metabolic abnormalities. We examined whether these associations are also evident in boys with PP. The study population consisted of matched groups of boys (n = 58; age range 5-15 years) without or with a history of PP. After stratification for pubertal development, non-PP and PP boys displayed comparable results for the studied variables, including serum insulin-like growth factor I, sex hormone binding globulin, insulin-like growth factor binding proteins 1 and 3, indices of circulating glucose and insulin responsiveness to an oral glucose load, and birth weight SD score. In conclusion, the present results indicate that adrenarche-driven PP in boys is, in contrast to PP in girls, not associated with a cluster of endocrine-metabolic abnormalities and is not related to reduced fetal growth. These observations support the view that adrenarche-driven PP in boys may be regarded as a variant of normal development. Copyrightz1999S.KargerAG,Basel