Evaluation of etiology and clinical feature of precocious puberty among children presenting in a pediatric endocrinology department in a tertiary care hospital.

Objective: To find the frequency of precocious puberty in children and to compare the clinical and laboratory parameters of central & peripheral precocious puberty. Study Design: Cross-sectional study. Setting: Karachi's National Institute of Child Health's Paediatric & endocrinology Division. Period: December 2016 and 2021. Material & Methods: All patients with precocious puberty will be taken from files through non-probability convenience sampling method. Data was analyzed on SPSS version 22.0. Results: Total 65 patients were included. The mean age was 6+3.35years. Precocious puberty was classified as peripheral precocious puberty in 38 (58.4%), central precocious puberty in 20 (30.76%), premature thelarche in 5(7.69%) and premature1pubarche in 2 (3.07%). In the peripheral precocious1puberty group, CAH was found in 22(78.5%), out of which 2 patients were of rare mutation of CAH presenting with peripheral precocious puberty (DAX mutation and 11 B hydroxylase mutation, adenocarcinoma was observed in 2(7.14%) followed by Mu-cane- Albright syndrome was in 4(14.28%) and van wykgrumbach syndrome in 10 patients. Central precocious puberty was found in 20 patients hypothalamic harmartoma in 4(20%), craniopharyngioma 3(15%), hypothalamic astrocytoma 1(5.0%), genetically proven neurofibromatosis in 1(5.0%) patient and hydrocephalus 1(5.0%) and in 10(50%) patients no cause was found. Conclusion: The conclusion of the study that Peripheral precocious puberty was more common than central precocious puberty. The common cause of peripheral precocious puberty was CAH, while central precocious puberty was idiopathic. Children with central precocious puberty had greater height SDS, weight SDS, FSH, and LH levels compared to children who had peripheral precocious puberty.