Brain tissue biomarker impact bone age in central precocious puberty more than hormones: a quantitative synthetic...

To investigate which brain tissue component volume (BTCV) biomarkers may be more effective than hormones in influencing bone age development in central precocious puberty (CPP).

This retrospective study included 84 children with CPP and 84 controls. Data on cranial synthetic magnetic resonance (SyMR), X-ray bone age, and three hormones were collected. BTCVs-myelin content (MyC), white matter (WM), gray matter (GM), cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), and non-WM/GM/MyC/CSF (NoN)-were obtained from SyMRI. A deep learning model assessed Tanner-Whitehouse III (TW3) bone age scores (TW3-RUS, TW3-Carpal). We evaluated the correlation between BTCVs, bone age scores, luteinizing hormone (LH), LH after gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) stimulation, and follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH).

Children with CPP had lower MyC, WM, and GM than controls. The TW3-RUS score did not correlate with BTCVs or hormones. The TW3-Carpal score was positively correlated with MyC (r = 0.397, P < 0.001) but not with WM, GM, CSF, NoN, or hormones. The regression model showed a positive correlation between the TW3-Carpal score and MyC (β = 0.077, P < 0.001), while LH correlated with GM and NoN (β = - 16.66, P = 0.019; β = 24.62, P = 0.019).

The TW3-Carpal score in CPP positively correlates with MyC, while two TW3 scores do not correlate with hormone levels, suggesting myelin has a greater impact on bone age development than hormones. MyC may serve as a potential biomarker in BTCVs for CPP.