Clinical features of children who apply with early adolescence symptoms

This study aimed to evaluate the clinical characteristics of children evaluated with complaints of suspected precocious puberty. The clinical characteristics of 839 children, 48 (5.7%) of whom were boys, who were brought to a tertiary health center with suspicion of precocious puberty between 01.01.2014 and 31.12.2020, were retrospectively examined from hospital files. When girls and boys were evaluated separately, it was observed that 442/791 (55.9%) of the girls and 22/48 (45.8%) of the boys brought with concerns about early puberty had normal puberty characteristics. It was determined that 203/791 (25.7%) of the girls were diagnosed with precocious puberty, 188 of whom had central precocious puberty (CPP) and 15 of whom had peripheral precocious puberty. While there were no boys diagnosed with peripheral precocious puberty, 7/48 (14.6%) were diagnosed with CPP. Although it tends to be more common in girls, no difference was found between gender groups in terms of the frequency of being diagnosed with precocious puberty (p=0.085). No difference was detected between girls and boys diagnosed with CPP in terms of duration of complaints, birth weights, weight, height, and BMI SDS (p>0.05). Cranial imaging was evaluated as normal in the majority of children diagnosed with CPP. Abnormalities that were not thought to be related to precocious puberty were detected in a small number of cases (14.3%). Except for 2 (6.3%) of 32 children with premature pubarche who were diagnosed with non-classical congenital adrenal hyperplasia, the rest were diagnosed with premature adrenarche. The data of this study show that there is an inadequacy in the evaluation of children's pubertal development in primary and secondary healthcare institutions in our region and probably throughout our country. Additionally, it has been determined that clinically related central nervous system abnormalities are not common in children diagnosed with CPP. Key words: precocious puberty, premature pubarche, child