Association between anthropometric hormonal measurements and bone mineral density in puberty and constitutional delay of growth and puberty.

The aim of this study is to evaluate the acquisition of bone mineral in healthy children throughout puberty and in children with constitutional delay of growth and puberty (CDGP), and to relate changes in bone mass to age, weight, height, sitting height, body mass index and sex hormones in healthy boys. A total of 90 boys: 15 boys with CDGP and 75 healthy boys in different pubertal stages were examined. The number of children assigned to each Tanner stages was 15. Although bone age, weight and Body Mass Index (BMI) were significantly higher in stages II, III, IV V compared to stage I and CDGI mean height and sitting height values were higher in stages III, IV V compared to stage I and CDGP Also, serum FSH, LH, oestradiol, total and free testosterone levels progressively increased, although serum sex hormone binding globulin (SHBG) levels decreased, in healthy children with progression of sexual development. Significant increase was observed for serum oestradiol levels at stage II and above (p < 0.001), for serum total and free testosterone levels at stage III and above (p < 0.001), for serum FSH and LH levels at stage IV and above (p < 0.01 and p < 0.001) respectively. Also, it was shown that bone mineral content (BMC) and bone mineral density (BMD) measurements were significantly higher for pubertal stage III and above groups according to both the CDGP group and stage I group. When BMD and BMC measurements of children with CDGP (0.62 +/- 0.05 gr/cm2 and 23.4 +/- 2.8 gr) were compared with bone age, age, BMI and height-matched controls, there was no significant difference between children with CDGP and controls, except for age. Bone mineral density and BMC measurements in children with CDGP were significantly lower than those of age-matched controls (for pubertal stage III: p < 0.05, for pubertal stage IV: p < 0.01). The strongest correlation coefficients were found between BMD and height among auxological parameters (r = 0.63, p < 0.001) and serum oestradiol levels among hormones (r = 0.55, p < 0.001). The most important findings of this investigation was the determination of body composition and hormonal measurement changes during puberty in boys; oestradiol was the most potent determinant of BMD among pubertal boys. We suggested that there is a critical age period for accumulation of bone mass according to the results. Longitudinal studies will elucidate why sufficient mineralization does take place after puberty starts in CDGP