ESPE Abstracts

Background: Clinical assessment of pubertal breast development using Tanner staging is subjective. This has led to the introduction of ultrasound, aiming for a more objective analysis. However, information regarding its reliability is lacking.Objective: To examine intra- and inter-observer agreement of breast maturity staging using ultrasound, and to examine the precision of direct measurements of the gland.Materials and methods: F...

Background: Prader orchidometry has been the standard method for evaluating testicular size. As this technique is subjective and tends to overestimate the testicular volume, ultrasound has been proposed as a more reliable method.Objective: To evaluate the intra- and inter-observer agreement of ultrasound measurements of testicular volume and comparison with Prader orchidometry.Materials and methods: Length, width and depth of the r...

Background: Recent research has demonstrated earlier testicular and pubertal development in Western boys. New ultrasound-based references of testicular growth in Norwegian boys are now available. Population specific references for FSH, LH and sex steroid hormones have not been previously available in Norwegian children and adolescents.Objective and hypotheses: We aimed to provide an elaborate description of pubertal development in a sample of contemporar...

Objective: Recent studies have suggested earlier onset of pubertal development in boys. As assessment with orchidometer tends to overestimate true testicular volume (TV), and measurements based on ultrasound (US) have been proposed as a more reliable method, we present US based references in 6-16 year-old Norwegian boys. Our results are compared with data from Europe and the United States (U.S.) in order to establish evidence for an ongoing secular trend in ma...

Background: Using ultrasound to examine the glandular breast tissue is a promising method for staging pubertal breast development. However, breast ultrasound for this purpose has not been explored in a large sample of healthy girls in different developmental stages, and normative data have been unavailable.Objective: To present novel pubertal references for breast ultrasound stages, Tanner breast (B) and pubic hair (PH) ...

Introduction: Male puberty is initiated by endocrine signaling in the hypothalamic-pituitary axis whereby follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) and luteinizing hormone (LH) enable testicular maturation and synthesis of testosterone. Recent publications have eluded to overnutrition and obesity as relevant factors that may accelerate the timing of puberty. Attainment of testicular volume (TV) 4 ml measured by Prader orchidometer remains the definition of male puber...