The Relationship Between Premature Adrenarche and Markers of Inflammation in Complete Blood Count

INTRODUCTION: Premature adrenarche has been associated with metabolic and polycystic ovarian syndrome and, thus, with an increased risk for type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular diseases in later life. Mean platelet volume, neutrophil/lymphocyte ratio, and platelet/lymphocyte ratio are parameters used to show inflammation. This study planned to evaluate systemic inflammation in children with premature adrenarche using mean platelet volume (MPV), neutrophil/lymphocyte ratio (NLR), and platelet/lymphocyte ratio (PLR).
METHODS: The study included 40 female patients diagnosed with PA and 40 healthy female individuals as a control group, retrospectively. The patient and control groups' MPV, NLR, and PLR values were compared.
RESULTS: The mean age of the PA group was 7.18±0.66, and the mean age of the control group was 7.09±1.08. The mean MPV and PDW values were significantly higher than those in the control group (10.25±0.87 vs 9.52±0.79, p<0.001 and 15.43±1.31 vs 14.35±1.84, p=0.04, respectively). However, in the PA group, NLR and PLR were not significantly different from the values in the control group (p>0.05). The results of the multivariate logistic regression analysis revealed that the mean platelet volume [Odds ratio (OR); 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.331 (0.174-0.630); p=0.001], and platelet distribution width [OR; 95% CI 0.612 (0.425-0.884); p=0.008] were associated with PA in the patient group.
DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION: Our results demonstrated that premature adrenarche patients had significantly higher mean platelet volume levels and platelet distribution width than healthy controls. Hence, recognition of early markers in adolescence might reveal primary pathogenetic alterations predictive of the later development of PCOS and metabolic syndrome.