Clinical Significance of Serum Leptin Level in Adolescent Patients with Menstrual Abnormalities / 대한산부인과학회잡지

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVES: Leptin is known as an endocrinologic mediator which acts on the hypothalamic- pituitary-ovarian axis. This study was undertaken to evaluate whether the serum leptin level affects the menstrual cycles of adolescents and to analyze the clinical features of adolescents with abnormal serum leptin levels. METHODS: Seventeen normal controls and 118 patients with menstrual abnormalities were included in this study. The ages of patients ranged from 15 to 25 years. Patients with menstrual abnormality were divided into five subgroups according to the etiologies: group I; premature ovarian failure(n=8), group II; primary amenorrhea without congenital structural abnormality(n=14), group III; oligomenorrhea(n=12), group IV; secondary amenorrhea(n=53), group V; dysfunctional uterine bleeding(n=31). After collection of blood samples, the serum leptin levels were measured with a radioimmunoassay kit. The serum leptin level and the corrected leptin level(leptin/body mass index(BMI)) were compared and the clinical features of those with abnormal leptin concentration (>mean+standard deviation,