UMMS Affiliation

Department of Medicine

Publication Date

2018-06-27

Document Type

Article

Disciplines

Congenital, Hereditary, and Neonatal Diseases and Abnormalities | Endocrine System Diseases | Endocrinology, Diabetes, and Metabolism | Pediatrics | Reproductive and Urinary Physiology

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: Recent studies in the US and abroad suggest that boys are undergoing puberty at a younger age. It is unknown if this secular trend extends to boys with central precocious puberty (CPP), who sit at the extreme end of the pubertal spectrum, and if neuroimaging should remain a standard diagnostic tool.

STUDY DESIGN: Retrospective chart review of all boys with CPP seen by Endocrinology at a US pediatric hospital from 2001-2010.

RESULTS: Fifty boys had pubertal onset at an average age of 7.31 years (95CI 6.83-7.89), though many did not present until nearly one year thereafter, by which time 30% were mid-to-late pubertal. Boys were predominantly non-Hispanic White and 64% were overweight/obese. The majority (64%) of boys had neurogenic CPP (CNS-CPP) with neurofibromatosis type I being the most common diagnosis. Diagnosis of CPP led to discovery of a neurogenic lesion in only 3 of 32 (9%) CNS-CPP cases. The remaining boys, with idiopathic CPP (36%), were indistinguishable from those with CNS-CPP aside from four boys who endorsed a family history of PP (22% vs. 0% among CNS-CPP cases). Importantly, there was no change in the incidence of male CPP after accounting for the increase in clinic volume during this time period.

CONCLUSION: In this contemporary Boston-based cohort of 50 boys with CPP, most cases were neurogenic, consistent with older literature. Several idiopathic cases had a family history of PP but were otherwise indistinguishable from CNS-CPP cases. Thus, neuroimaging remains a critical diagnostic tool. We find no evidence for an increase in the prevalence of male CPP.

Keywords

Puberty, Cancer detection and diagnosis, Pediatric endocrinology, Pediatrics, Neuroimaging, Diagnostic medicine, Brain damage, Endocrinology

Rights and Permissions

Copyright: This is an open access article, free of all copyright, and may be freely reproduced, distributed, transmitted, modified, built upon, or otherwise used by anyone for any lawful purpose. The work is made available under the Creative Commons CC0 public domain dedication.

DOI of Published Version

10.1371/journal.pone.0199019

Source

PLoS One. 2018 Jun 27;13(6):e0199019. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0199019. eCollection 2018. Link to article on publisher's site

Journal/Book/Conference Title

PloS one

Related Resources

Link to Article in PubMed

PubMed ID

29949619

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons 1.0 Public Domain Dedication.

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