title: Impact of clinical, hormonal, radiological, and immunohistochemical studies on the diagnosis of postmenopausal hyperandrogenism.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Evaluation of postmenopausal women with suspicion of androgen-secreting tumor.
  
  
  METHODS
  We retrospectively studied 22 postmenopausal women referred to our center for suspicion of androgen-secreting tumor. All patients had clinical, biological, and morphological evaluation. In absence of adrenal tumors, ovarian surgery was most often proposed and immunohistochemistry (IHC) studies were performed.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Ovarian tumors were detected by ultrasound and/or magnetic resonance imaging in eight patients. Two adrenal androgen-secreting tumors were diagnosed by an adrenal computed tomography (CT) scan. The clinical presentation of the women with or without tumors was similar. Nevertheless, women with tumor exhibited significantly higher testosterone levels and lower basal FSH and LH levels than the other women (2.6±2.7 vs 0.9±0.9 ng/ml, P<0.05; 26.5±22.9 vs 66.5±26.0 IU/l, P<0.01; and 12.0±8.6 vs 24.1±8.9 IU/l, P<0.05 respectively). Based on a likelihood ratio test, patients with a tumor had 8.4 and 10.8 times higher risk of having a testosterone level ≥1.4 ng/ml or an FSH level ≤35 IU/l. Finally, IHC analysis with an anti-P450c17α antibody allowed the identification of an elevated number of ovarian androgen-producing cells in five patients in whom no tumor was found.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Androgen-secreting tumors are clinically difficult to discriminate from other causes of postmenopausal hyperandrogenism. Testosterone and FSH were the two discriminative markers in a multivariate analysis. Ovarian and adrenal tumors were detected by imaging studies. However, ovarian non-tumoral causes of hyperandrogenism may be difficult to detect with conventional histology.
authors: AP-HP, Department of Endocrinology and Reproductive Medicine, Groupe Hospitalier Pitié-Salpêtrière, Centre de Référence des Maladies Endocriniennes Rares de la Croissance, Université, Pierre et Marie Curie, Paris VI, 75013 Paris, France.
authors: Julie
authors: J
authors: Sarfati
authors: Anne
authors: A
authors: Bachelot
authors: Christiane
authors: C
authors: Coussieu
authors: Géri
authors: G
authors: Meduri
authors: Philippe
authors: P
authors: Touraine
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000728:Androgens / Q000378:metabolism; D015415:Biomarkers / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D017588:Hyperandrogenism / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000378:metabolism*; D008875:Middle Aged; D010051:Ovarian Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000378:metabolism*; D017698:Postmenopause / Q000097:blood*; D011859:Radiography; D012189:Retrospective Studies
chemical_list: D000728:Androgens; D015415:Biomarkers