Features of the physical development of girls with different course of puberty and level of adaptive capabilities

Abstract

The purpose of the study — to establish the features of the physical development of adolescent girls with the different course of puberty and to assess adaptive capabilities depending on the indicators of physical development and the course of puberty.Materials and methods: The examinations involved 57 girls aged 11 to 17 year who were divided into two groups depending on the presence of menstrual disorders. The first group included girls with physiological puberty. The second group consisted of girls with oligo­ or amenorrhea, and in isolated cases, with abnormal uterine bleeding, proio­ or polymenorrhea. The assessments included somatometric parameters, the results of the Ruffier test, the clinoortostatic test, cardiac morphometric indicators, and vascular reactivity according to Doppler ultrasound, the Kerdo index and Baevsky’s adaptive potential.Results and discussion. The significant frequency of tall and higher than average height was established as specific feature of girls regardless of the variant of puberty course (42.4 % with physiological and 42.8 % with pathological puberty). In general, the girls did not differ in height and body weight. In terms of Baevsky’s adaptive potential, 100 % of girls had a satisfactory adaptation level. The significant proportion of adolescent girls showed low exercise tolerance (63.7 % of girls with physiological and 50 % with pathological puberty). The high frequency of initial sympathy and the prevalence of normal vegetative support were recorded. Satisfactory and good results were more likely to be obtained by girls with puberty disorders. Girls with physiological puberty had a high incidence of hyperkinetic hemodynamic (37.5 % compared to 15.0 % in the second group, p < 0.05).The adaptive capabilities of girls with average height did not differ between groups with various puberty course. The tall girls of the first group had the higher frequency of the hyperkinetic type of hemodynamics, combined with best indices of vascular reactivity: two thirds of subjects demonstrated adequate increase in the diameter of the brachial artery in the sample with reactive hyperemia. In girls with menstrual dysfunction, the acceleration of growth was not accompanied by activation of the sympathoadrenal system, but they showed better results of exercise test. It could be assumed that presence of sexual hormones’ imbalance with testosterone prevalence, promotes these results and increases endurance of girls. However, the isolated Ruffier test does not fully reflect the satisfactory adaptation of an adolescent’s body. It is necessary to compare the results of the functional study of adolescent girls with the peculiarities of their hormonal status.Conclusions. A big proportion of girls with tall and higher than average height is the peculiarity of physical development of modern female adolescents. In the absence of pathology of puberty, the adaptive reactions of a body of an adolescent girl are characterized by increased exposure to the sympathoadrenal system. The use of Baevsky’s adaptive potential, calculated for adolescent patients, does not allow even screening to identify individuals at risk of stress or adaptation failure, which indicates the need to expand the scope of examination of adolescents using functional tests and calculation coefficients.