Premature thelarche in Macedonia: a three-year follow-up.

INTRODUCTION

Premature thelarche presents as an appearance of breasts and glandular tissue in girls before the age of 8 years. It is mostly a benign and transitory variation of premature sexual development.

AIM OF THE STUDY: We evaluated a group of girls with premature thelarche for clinical and auxologic characteristics for a period of three years. We investigated the duration of the condition and eventual progression toward true idiopathic central precocious puberty.

PATIENTS, MATERIALS,

METHODS

At the Department of Endocrinology and Genetics at the Pediatric Clinic in Skopje, 127 girls with premature thelarche, from all over the country, were analyzed and followed-up for a period of 3 years (2000-2003).

RESULTS AND

CONCLUSIONS

Premature thelarche as a partial form of premature sexual development, in our study included 98 girls, and showed to be a benign condition, the girls are with normal height, slightly elevated weight, but with increased bone maturation and height velocity in the first year. A progression toward central precocious puberty was not registered. The duration of the condition was about two years in most of the girls, with a regression of enlarged breasts in smaller patients and with occurrence of normal puberty in older patients (Tab. 1, Fig. 3, Ref. 16). Full Text (Free, PDF) www.bmj.sk.