USEFULNESS OF SEQUENTIAL URINARY FOLLICLE-STIMULATING-HORMONE AND LUTEINIZING-HORMONE MEASUREMENTS IN THE DIAGNOSIS OF ADOLESCENT HYPOGONADOTROPISM IN MALES

FSH and/or LH deficiency in the second decade of life remains difficul t to diagnose with testing at a single point in time because of the pa rtial lack of hormone as well as the dynamic and inherently variable a spects of the pubertal process. A longitudinal study of gonadotropin e xcretion, therefore, was carried out in 78 normal boys and 157 male pa tients, aged 10-28 yr, with relative or absolute deficiencies of FSH a nd/or LH. Seven hundred and fifty-five timed urine samples were extrac ted with acetone, concentrated, and subjected to RIA. The results from patient groups with multiple tropic hormone deficiencies or isolated gonadotropin deficiency were clearly different from those of normal bo ys and individuals with constitutional delay in puberty. However, mult iple samples obtained over a 2-yr period and, in selected cases, until the late teenage years may be required to diagnose gonadotropin defic iency in some patients, even using stringent predictive modeling crite ria.