Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, Vol 74, 248-253, Copyright © 1992 by Endocrine Society

ARTICLES

The role of adrenocorticotropin testing in evaluating girls with premature adrenarche and hirsutism/oligomenorrhea

LA Hawkins, FI Chasalow and SL Blethen
Department of Pediatrics, Schneider Children's Hospital of Long Island, Jewish Medical Center, New Hyde Park, New York 11042.

To identify biochemical predictors for future development of hirsutism and/or oligomenorrhea (H/O) in girls with premature adrenarche (PA), we performed dexamethasone-suppressed ACTH stimulation tests in girls with PA (n = 46), young women (n = 44) with H/O, and adult women (n = 31). Cortisol, androstenedione, dehydroepiandrosterone, and 17- hydroxyprogesterone were measured. Seven girls with PA (15%) and seven with H/O (16%) had evidence of nonclassical adrenal steroid biosynthetic defects [nonclassical congenital adrenal hyperplasia (NCAH)]. Twenty-five girls with PA (54%) and 28 girls with H/O (64%) had the moderately elevated 17-hydroxyprogesterone response to ACTH that has been reported in obligate heterozygotes for 21-hydroxylase deficiency. There were no clinical features that distinguished the girls with NCAH from the others. ACTH testing is an important tool in distinguishing those girls with PA and H/O who have NCAH. Although we could find no differences in other adrenal steroid hormones that might predict which of the other girls with PA might late develop H/O, black girls comprised a substantially smaller fraction of the population with H/O than of the population with PA (2% vs. 26%; chi 2 = 8.5; P less than 0.005). This observation suggests that PA, in blacks who do not have NCAH, is more likely to be a benign condition/than in other ethnic groups.

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