Clinical use of the LH-RH in assessing gonadotropic reserve in children with idiopathic precocious puberty, premature thelarche and premature adrenarche.

Serum LH and FSH were assayed in 31 girls with normal pre puberty, precocious puberty, premature thelarche, and premature adrenarche, aged 2 to 9 years. The effect of synthetic luteinizing hormone-releasing hormone (LH-RH) on serum gonadotropins was evaluated in eleven of them. In all girls with precocious puberty, serum LH was increased up to high levels. The mean releasable LH in two girls with idiopathic precocious puberty was significantly greater than in normal prepubertal or pubertal children. Basal FSH in children with precocious puberty was within the limits of normal prepuberal children, and FSH secretion in response to LH-RH was not significantly greater than in the group of normal prepubertal and pubertal girls. In children with premature thelarche and premature adrenarche, basal levels of LH and FSH, as well as gonadotropin response to LH-RH were in the prepubertal range. These preliminary results show that the LH-RH test might be of clinical value in differenitating abnormal puberal development.