Precocious puberty

Abstract

Introduction. Precocious puberty is a disease that refers to the appearance of physical and hormonal signs of sexual development at an earlier age (before 8 years in girls and 9 years in boys) that is considered normal. Precocious puberty can be divided into 2 categories: central and peripheral precocious puberty. The etiology of central precocious puberty (CPP) is based on premature synthesis of sexual hormones by activation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal (HPG) axis. Peripheral precocious puberty (PPP) does not implicate the HPG axis and is secondary to other diseases. Aim of study. To study precocious puberty for identification of etiological, diagnostic and treatment particularities Methods and materials In the study participated 34 patients (age range 3-15 years) that have addressed themselves to the Institute of Mother and Child between years 2018-2021. After primary examination they have been diagnosed with precocious puberty. Results. From 34 patients, 30 (88,23%) patients have been diagnosed with central precocious puberty and 4 (11,77%) with peripheral precocious puberty. From patients with CPP 29 (96,67%) are girls and 1 patient (3,33%) is a boy. Patients with PPP are presented by 1 girl (25%) and 3 boys (75%). Analysing the average onset age of the first symptoms of early puberty, we reveal that the average age is lower in the group of girls: 6.29 years, compared to the average age in the group of boys: 7.5 years. Time interval between the onset of the disease and primary medical consultation is shorter in girls: 1,34 years than in boys 5,87 years. Following the assessment of the structure of the study groups according to BMI, it was established that the prevalence of obese patients as a risk factor is 20.58%, the average BMI is 26.11 and non-obese patients are 79.42%, their BMI being 17.09. According to the analysis of the history of patients with primary medical disease, it was established that 25 patients (73.52%) report fatigue, as well as an accelerated growth rate, 28 (82.35%) report headache, 6 patients (17.64%) accuse pubarche, 4 (11.76%) accuse emotional lability, 23 patients (67.64%) accuse the appearance of thelarche, and 5 (14.70%) menarche. Conclusion. The highest number of patients diagnosed with precocious puberty are girls. The average age of diagnosing this disease is 7,73 years. CPP is more common in girls and PPP in boys. Girls have a shorter time interval between the onset of the disease and primary medical consultation. Boys most commonly experience headache, fatigue, emotional lability, and accelerated weight gain, while girls, to the aforesaid symptoms, have thelarche, menarche, and/or pubarche.