Effectiveness of basal LH in monitoring central precocious puberty treatment in girls.
OBJECTIVES
Treatment of central precocious puberty (CPP) is based on administration of GnRH agonists in order to suppress hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal axis and thus induce the stabilization or regression of pubertal development. Our aim was to determine whether the single basal serum LH and/or FSH concentration could be an effective tool to assess the efficacy of treatment to suppress activation of hypothalamic-pituitary axis.


PATIENTS AND METHODS
Serum LH and FSH were measured before and after the GnRH injection, as well as E2 basal levels in 60 girls with documented idiopathic CPP at diagnosis and 18 and 30 months after the beginning of therapy.


RESULTS
At diagnosis, peaks of >5 IU/L of LH and of FSH were observed in 100 and 91.6% of girls, respectively, with basal LH values of <1 IU/L in 70% and basal FSH levels of <1 IU/L in 10%. E2 were <20 pg/mL in 36.6%. After 18 months, a suppressed peak (i.e. <3 IU/L) was recorded in 85% of girls (p<0.01) for LH and in 98.3% for FSH (p<0.01). Basal LH <1 IU/L was detected in 85% (p<0.01) and basal FSH ≤1 IU/L in 40% (p<0.01). Serum E2 ≤20 pg/mL was recorded in 61.6% (p<0.01). After 30 months, all patients showed LH suppressed peak (p<0.01) and 98.3% suppressed FSH peak (p<0.01). 100% showed basal LH concentrations <1 IU/L (p<0.01) and 38.3% FSH basal values <1 UI/mL (p<0.01). E2 ≤20 pg/mL was observed in 32.72% (p=NS).


CONCLUSIONS
Basal LH values are a reliable indicator of the efficacy of GnRHa therapy after 30 months of GnRHa therapy.
['Calcaterra|Valeria|V|', 'De Filippo|Gianpaolo|G|', 'Albertini|Riccardo|R|', 'Rendina|Domenico|D|', 'Messini|Beatrice|B|', 'Monti|Claudio Maria|CM|', 'Bozzola|Elena|E|', 'Villani|Alberto|A|', 'Bozzola|Mauro|M|']
D015415:Biomarkers D002648:Child D002675:Child, Preschool D016903:Drug Monitoring D004958:Estradiol D005260:Female D005640:Follicle Stimulating Hormone D005500:Follow-Up Studies D007987:Gonadotropin-Releasing Hormone D006801:Humans D007223:Infant D007986:Luteinizing Hormone D011379:Prognosis D011629:Puberty, Precocious
LH monitoring precocious puberty puberty GnRH FSH GnRH analog (GnRHa)