Assessment of retinal thickness as a marker of brain masculinization in children with congenital adrenal hyperplasia: a pilot study
-
Hasan Onal
,
Esra Kutlu
Abstract
Objective
To investigate the relationship between brain masculinization and retinal thickness in children with congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH).
Methods
Forty-five patients with CAH aged between 4 and 18 years and 30 age-matched healthy controls were included in this prospective study. Macular area was examined with optical coherence tomography (OCT); central subfield thickness (CST), cube volume (CV) and macular retinal thickness (MT) were measured in each subject. A gender identity questionnaire (GIQ) was used for the evaluation of gender happiness index.
Results
Girls with CAH had a higher CV (p = 0.002) and MT (p = 0.003) than healthy girls. No significant difference was found between boys with CAH and healthy boys regarding the retinal thickness measurements. Mean CST, CV and MT were significantly higher in boys than in girls in the control group (p = 0.013, p < 0.001, respectively), but there was no significant difference in those parameters between girls and boys with CAH. The gender happiness index was not different between healthy boys and boys with CAH, but was significantly lower in girls with CAH than healthy girls (p = 0.01).
Conclusions
As retina is part of the brain, our finding appears to be a morphological evidence of the excess androgen exposure on brain structures in girls with CAH. In addition, we suggest using retinal thickness measurements as a marker of prenatal excess androgen exposure in future studies.
Author contributions: All the authors have accepted responsibility for the entire content of this submitted manuscript and approved submission.
Research funding: None declared.
Employment or leadership: None declared.
Honorarium: None declared.
Competing interests: The funding organization(s) played no role in the study design; in the collection, analysis, and interpretation of data; in the writing of the report; or in the decision to submit the report for publication.
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Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Review
- Effect of safflower yellow on early type II diabetic nephropathy: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials
- Original Articles
- Genomic study via chromosomal microarray analysis in a group of Romanian patients with obesity and developmental disability/intellectual disability
- Clinical and molecular characteristics and time of diagnosis of patients with classical galactosemia in an unscreened population in Turkey
- Assessment of retinal thickness as a marker of brain masculinization in children with congenital adrenal hyperplasia: a pilot study
- Auditory event-related potentials demonstrate early cognitive impairment in children with subclinical hypothyroidism
- Cardiovascular risk factors in children with type 1 diabetes mellitus
- The relationship between serum FGF-23 concentration and insulin resistance, prediabetes and dyslipidemia in obese children and adolescents
- The metabolic consequences of overweight in a cohort of children with type 1 diabetes
- The spectrum of pediatric adrenal insufficiency: insights from 34 years of experience
- Growth screening in children aged 3–5 years: a useful tool for public health programs in community pediatrics
- Selective receptor-mediated impairment of growth factor activity in neonatal- and X-linked adrenoleukodystrophy patients
- Determinants for low bone mineral density in pre-school children: a matched case-control study in Wuhan, China
- Genetic polymorphisms associated with obesity and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease in Asian Indian adolescents
- Maturity onset diabetes of the young (MODY) in Chinese children: genes and clinical phenotypes
- Severe, persistent neonatal hypoglycemia as a presenting feature in patients with congenital hypopituitarism: a review of our case series
- Case Reports
- Short stature in a boy with atypical progeria syndrome due to LMNA c.433G>A [p.(Glu145Lys)]: apparent growth hormone deficiency but poor response to growth hormone therapy
- A novel mutation leading to the lethal form of carnitine palmitoyltransferase type-2 deficiency
- Diagnosis of cyclic Cushing’s disease manifests as early morning hyperglycemia in a patient with previously well-controlled type 1 diabetes
- Short Communication
- Replacement of breastfeeding with medical food for the treatment of galactosemia and phenylketonuria: maternal stress
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Review
- Effect of safflower yellow on early type II diabetic nephropathy: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials
- Original Articles
- Genomic study via chromosomal microarray analysis in a group of Romanian patients with obesity and developmental disability/intellectual disability
- Clinical and molecular characteristics and time of diagnosis of patients with classical galactosemia in an unscreened population in Turkey
- Assessment of retinal thickness as a marker of brain masculinization in children with congenital adrenal hyperplasia: a pilot study
- Auditory event-related potentials demonstrate early cognitive impairment in children with subclinical hypothyroidism
- Cardiovascular risk factors in children with type 1 diabetes mellitus
- The relationship between serum FGF-23 concentration and insulin resistance, prediabetes and dyslipidemia in obese children and adolescents
- The metabolic consequences of overweight in a cohort of children with type 1 diabetes
- The spectrum of pediatric adrenal insufficiency: insights from 34 years of experience
- Growth screening in children aged 3–5 years: a useful tool for public health programs in community pediatrics
- Selective receptor-mediated impairment of growth factor activity in neonatal- and X-linked adrenoleukodystrophy patients
- Determinants for low bone mineral density in pre-school children: a matched case-control study in Wuhan, China
- Genetic polymorphisms associated with obesity and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease in Asian Indian adolescents
- Maturity onset diabetes of the young (MODY) in Chinese children: genes and clinical phenotypes
- Severe, persistent neonatal hypoglycemia as a presenting feature in patients with congenital hypopituitarism: a review of our case series
- Case Reports
- Short stature in a boy with atypical progeria syndrome due to LMNA c.433G>A [p.(Glu145Lys)]: apparent growth hormone deficiency but poor response to growth hormone therapy
- A novel mutation leading to the lethal form of carnitine palmitoyltransferase type-2 deficiency
- Diagnosis of cyclic Cushing’s disease manifests as early morning hyperglycemia in a patient with previously well-controlled type 1 diabetes
- Short Communication
- Replacement of breastfeeding with medical food for the treatment of galactosemia and phenylketonuria: maternal stress
