Importance of leuprolide acetate variable dosing for precocious puberty: a range of acceptable suppression.

AIM: The effect of the variation in hormonal suppression on bone maturation, growth velocity, and adult height prediction was examined during treatment with leuprolide acetate for central precocious puberty (CPP).

METHODS

Ten girls on variable doses of Lupron were studied for one year. Height, weight, body mass index, luteinizing hormone (LH), estradiol, and growth velocity were measured every 3 months. Bone age and predicted height were assessed every 6 months.

RESULTS

LH range changed from 0.5-1.4 IU/I to 0.1-2.8 IU/I. The average Lupron dose decreased from 0.33 +/- 0.11 to 0.26 +/- 0.08 mg/kg. Predicted adult height averaged 158.33 +/- 9.5cm at the start of the study and increased to 161.45 +/- 6.26 cm (p <0.01). LH and estradiol did not correlate with the rate of bone maturation, growth velocity, predicted height, or with leuprolide dose.

CONCLUSION

Variable dosing of leuprolide acetate is needed to achieve similar amounts of hormonal suppression, yet small changes in dose did not significantly change LH or estradiol levels or predicted height.