[Polycystic ovary syndrome: definition, pathoanatomic substrate and mechanisms of pathogenesis]

The polycystic ovary syndrome was described for the first time in 1935 and it consists of: menstrual irregularity (amenorrhea or dysfunctional bleeding from the uterus), obesity and hirsutism. The advancement of visualization techniques, especially of the ultrasound method with a high resolution, has enabled simpler diagnostics and a wider recognition of the named syndrome and the defining of it's subvariants, which has led to a tendency that the entity be named polycystic ovary disease (PCOD). The paper presents the clinical, pathoanatomical and laboratory definition of the disease. Also analyzed, are the deviations which occur within each of the mentioned methods for the definition of the disease in patients in whom there was "surgical proof" of polycystic ovary disease. The prevalence of the disease, it's pathoanatomical substrate and pathogenetical mechanisms for individual subgroups are presented. In regard to the heterogeneity of possible etiological causes, we considered the disturbances which occur at the level of the hypothalamo-hypophyseal axis; the ovaries peripheral tissues, adrenal glands as well as the metabolic hypothesis which includes the gonadotropic effect of insulin within itself.