Dose inhibin B or anti-Müllerian hormone relate to precocious puberty in girls? result of a systematic review and meta-analysis

Abstract

Abstract Backgrounds Existing studies have investigated the relationship between the levels of serum inhibin B (INHB), anti-müllerian hormone (AMH) and precocious puberty in girls, but the results are inconsistent. Objective The aim of this meta-analysis was to assess whether the INHB and AMH levels changed in girls with precocious puberty relative to healthy controls. Methods PubMed, Embase, Cochrane Library and Web of Science were searched through June 2022. We included observational clinical studies reporting the serum levels INHB and AMH in girls with precocious puberty. Conference articles and observational study abstracts were included if they contained enough information regarding study design and outcome data. Case series and reports were excluded. An overall standard mean difference (SMD) between precocious puberty and healthy controls was estimated using a DerSimonian-Laird random-effects model. Results A total of 11 studies featuring 552 girls with precocious puberty and 405 healthy girls were selected for analysis. The meta-analysis showed that the INHB level of precocious puberty [including central precocious puberty (CPP) and premature the larche (PT)] were significantly increased. While there was no significant association between precocious puberty [including CPP, PT, premature pubarche (PP) and premature adrenarche (PA)] and the level of serum AMH. Conclusion Scientific evidence suggested that the INHB level, but not the AMH level, altered in girls with precocious puberty compared with healthy controls. Through our results we think that INHB level might be a marker for the auxiliary diagnosis of precocious puberty (especially CPP and PT). Therefore, it is important to evaluate and thoroughly investigate the clinical indicators (e.g., INHB) in order to ensure early diagnosis and medical intervention, and the risk of physical, psychological and social disorders in immature girls with precocious puberty is minimized.

Keywords

• Precocious puberty
• Inhibin B
• anti-müllerian hormone
• Premature thelarche
• Premature pubarche
• Premature adrenarche