Background: The first step in assessment of children with precocious puberty is to determine whether the cases are of benign nature or have more serious causes. It seems that two criteria of "height age" and "bone age" are helpful for this decision.
Materials and Methods: To evaluate the usefulness of those criteria, a retrospective study of 74 children (50 girls and 24 boys) with precocious puberty whom be visited between years 1993-2000 was performed. According to the medical history, clinical signs, and certain laboratory tests (in some cases) the patients were classified in different groups of precocious puberty.
Results: Height age and bone age were determined for all the patients. Those patients for whom treatment of any kind was required were also identified. The results of the statistical analysis of the findings were as follows: - No clear relation between "height age", "Bone age", type of precocious puberty, and the need for treatment was found in the male patients. All (100 percent) of the boys needed treatment. - Among the female patients, those with progressive complete precocious puberty (16 patients) had a significantly advanced height age and bone age comparing to the other groups. There was also a direct relation between the need for treatment and the advanced height age (11 patients), and between the need for treatment and the advanced bone age (10 patients).
Conclusion: All the boys with precocious puberty should be evaluated thoroughly because they usually have a serious disorder which needs treatment. However among the girls with precocious puberty, those with benign causes can be detected using the criteria of height age, bone age, and clinical signs. Therefore, unnecessary laboratory tests and treatments can be avoided in a percentage of these patients.
