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

Objective: 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).

Methods: 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).

Results: 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).

Conclusion: 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.