NIOSHTIC-2 Publications Search

Anorexia nervosa. Immaturity of the 24-hour luteinizing hormone secretory pattern.

Boyar RM; Katz J; Finkelstein JW; Kapen S; Weiner H; Weitzman ED; Hellman L

N Engl J Med 1974 Oct; 291(17):861-865

https://doi.org/10.1056/NEJM197410242911701

00190458

Nine women, aged 17 to 23 years, with anorexia nervosa participated in this study of plasma luteinizing hormone (LH) concentrations measured at 20 minute intervals for 24 hours. Of these nine patients, eight demonstrated secretory patterns that resembled those of either normal prepubertal or pubertal, premenarchal girls. These LH secretory patterns were inappropriate for the patient's chronologic age, and suggested that a regression in the patients with secondary amenorrhea or an arrest in the patients with primary amenorrhea of the normal LH secretory program had occurred. Following treatment there was a maturation process from an early pubertal LH secretory pattern to one characteristic of adult women in one case which followed a return of body weight to normal and a clinical remission. This result indicated the importance of body weight as a determinant of the functional integrity of the hypothalamic pituitary gonadal axis. Data from other studies suggested that the gonadotropin abnormality probably originated in the central nervous system. A secondary finding was that changes in body weight may affect the spontaneous 24 hour LH secretory pattern and relate to the sequential changes that occur in the LH secretory pattern during normal sexual maturation.

Nervous-system-disorders; Reproductive-system-disorders; Hormones; Hormone-activity; Endocrine-system; Gonadotropic-hormones; Menstrual-disorders

Division of Neurology Montefiore Hosp and Med Center Division of Neurology Bronx, N Y 10467

NEJMAG

19741024

Journal Article

346110.00

Grant

1975

Grant-Number-R01-OH-00331

17

0028-4793

Grants-other

New England Journal of Medicine

NY

Montefiore Hospital and Medical Center, New York, New York