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. 2018 Mar 28;31(3):305-312.
doi: 10.1515/jpem-2017-0247.

Clinical follow-up data and the rate of development of precocious and rapidly progressive puberty in patients with premature thelarche

Dilek Çiçek  1 , Senay Savas-Erdeve  1 , Semra Cetinkaya  1 , Zehra Aycan  1
Affiliations

Clinical follow-up data and the rate of development of precocious and rapidly progressive puberty in patients with premature thelarche

Dilek Çiçek et al. J Pediatr Endocrinol Metab. .

Abstract

Background: We aimed to evaluate the clinical follow-up data of patients with premature thelarche and determine the rate of development of precocious and early puberty in these patients.

Methods: The charts of 158 girls with premature thelarche who were followed-up in our pediatric endocrinology polyclinic were reviewed. The patients were divided into three groups according to the age at onset: group 1 (0-1 month) (n=12), group 2 (1-24 months) (n=40) and group 3 (2-8 years) (n=106).

Results: At admission, the mean height standard deviation score (SDS), body weight (BW)-SDS, body mass index (BMI) and BMI-SDS were significantly higher in group 3 than in group 1 and group 2. At admission, 8.8% of the patients were obese and 24% of the patients were overweight. The majority of patients who were obese and overweight were in group 3. At the end of the follow-up, thelarche regressed in 24.7%, persisted in 32.9%, progressed in 25.9% and had a cyclic pattern in 16.5% of the patients. Precocious or rapidly progressive puberty developed in 47 of the 158 patients (29.7%). The mean age at progression to early or rapidly progressive puberty was 98.1±17.6 months. A total of 89.3% of the patients who progressed to early or rapidly progressive puberty were in group 3.

Conclusions: Precocious or rapidly progressive puberty developed in 29.7% of subjects with premature thelarche. As patients who developed rapidly progressive puberty had a higher BW-SDS and BMI-SDS than those who did not, it is suggested that the increase in weight could stimulate rapidly progressive puberty in cases with premature thelarche.

Keywords: precocious puberty; premature thelarche; rapidly progressive puberty.

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