Selecting girls with precocious puberty for brain imaging: validation of European evidence-based diagnosis rule.
OBJECTIVE
To test the sensitivities of recently published American recommendations predicting occult intracranial lesion (OICL) in girls with central precocious puberty (CPP), and to validate a previously derived diagnosis rule predicting OICL based on age at puberty onset and estradiol (E2) level.


METHODS
A retrospective, multicenter, hospital-based, cohort study was performed, including all girls with CPP seen in 7 centers in 6 European countries during given periods. American recommendations and the previously derived diagnosis rule were tested.


RESULTS
Girls with CPP (n=443), including 35 with OICL, were recruited. American recommendations did not identify all OICL. Previously identified independent risk factors for OICL were confirmed: age <6 years (adjusted odds ratio 20.5; 95% CI, 8.1-52.1) and E2 >45th percentile (3.0; 95% CI, 1.3-7.1). The previously derived diagnosis rule had 100% sensitivity (95% CI, 90-100): all girls with OICL had either an age <6 years or an E2 level >45th percentile. The specificity was 39% (95% CI, 34-44).


CONCLUSIONS
American recommendations do not seem safe to select European girls with CPP who require brain imaging. In settings where systematic brain imaging is not possible, the proposed diagnosis rule could safely help to avoid more than one third of unnecessary brain imaging.
INSERM U149, 123 Boulevard de Port Royal, 75014 Paris, France. martin.chalumeau@wanadoo.fr
Martin
M
Chalumeau
Charalambos G
CG
Hadjiathanasiou
Sze M
SM
Ng
Alessandra
A
Cassio
Dick
D
Mul
Mariangela
M
Cisternino
Carl-Joachim
CJ
Partsch
Charalambos
C
Theodoridis
Mohammed
M
Didi
Emanuele
E
Cacciari
Wilma
W
Oostdijk
Alessandro
A
Borghesi
Wolfgang G
WG
Sippell
Gérard
G
Bréart
Raja
R
Brauner
D001927:Brain Diseases / Q000150:complications / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology*; D002648:Child; D003663:Decision Trees; D005060:Europe; D019317:Evidence-Based Medicine; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D018579:Patient Selection; D011629:Puberty, Precocious / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000209:etiology; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed