Moderate Day‐To‐Day Variation in First‐Morning Urine Total Luteinizing Hormone Levels Supports the Use of a Single Determination to Identify Imminent Puberty
Authors' conclusion
A single first-morning total U-LH measurement appears to be a valid clinical test for classifying children or adolescents into prepubertal, peripubertal, and pubertal groups. This study validates the recently reported finding that the timing of central puberty onset is sex-independent. The duration between the initial activation of gonadotropin secretion and the first clinical signs of puberty was longer in boys than in girls.
Study context
- Population
- Children with known pubertal stages; three consecutive first-morning total urinary LH plus spot serum LH and FSH
- Participants
- 354 children
- Comparison
- Boys vs Girls
- Boysn = 160
- Girlsn = 194
- Outcome
- Day-to-day variation (gross and net inter-assay CV%) in first-morning total urinary LH immunoreactivity (LH-ir)
- Follow-up
- Three consecutive mornings
Performance
As reported in the abstract
Gross inter-assay CV% (average)
37.6%
Net inter-assay CV% (average)
32.7%
Further findings
Inconsistent classification of total urinary LH-ir as prepubertal, peripubertal or pubertal
Timing of hypothalamo-pituitary-gonadal axis activation
- Activation occurs at a similar age in boys and girls; timing independent of sex
- Onset of pubertal gonadotropin secretion in boys at testicular volume of 1 to 2 mL, before clear clinical signs of puberty
Original publication
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