Abstract
Background: Precocious pubarche is defined as the appearance of pubic hair at an age younger than 8 years in girls and 9 years in boys. Objectives: To determine the etiologies and clinical characteristics of young Thai children being evaluated for precocious appearance of pubic hair. Subjects and method: The medical records of 32 children referred for evaluation of precocious presence of pubic hair at Songklanagarind Hospital, southern Thailand, during 1995-2009 were retrospectively reviewed. Results: Eighty percent of the patients had pathological etiologies explaining the precocious presence of pubic hair. The most common pathological etiology was congenital adrenal hyperplasia (50%), followed by hypothalamic hamartoma (18.8%), adrenal tumor (6.3%), and Leydig cell tumor (3.1%). Only 21.8% of the patients had no pathological etiology and were diagnosed as premature adrenarche. The weight and height standard deviation scores of patients with pathological etiologies were significantly greater than those with premature adrenarche. Patients with congenital adrenal hyperplasia had significantly greater levels of basal and peak 17-hydroxyprogesterone and significantly lower levels of peak cortisol than those with premature adrenarche and adrenal tumor. Conclusions: The presence of pubic hair in young Asian children is most commonly caused by an underlying pathological etiology. Premature adrenarche is found to be uncommon in Thai children.
Published Version (
Free)
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call