Denna sida har översatts automatiskt och översättningens korrekthet kan inte garanteras. Vänligen se engelsk version för en källtext.

Undersöker effekten av fetma på pubertetsutvecklingen hos flickor

7 november 2026 uppdaterad av: National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS)

Background:

Studies suggest that overweight girls may be developing breast tissue, and therefore starting puberty, earlier than normal weight girls. However, it is hard to distinguish breast tissue from fatty tissue. Researchers think that by using breast ultrasound, among other tests, they can do a better job of telling whether an overweight girl has breast tissue. This will help them understand if overweight girls are truly entering puberty before normal weight girls.

Objective:

To find out if overweight girls go through puberty earlier than normal weight girls.

Eligibility:

Healthy girls 8-14 years old who:

Are normal weight or overweight
Have some breast development
Have not started their first period

Design:

Parents of participants will be screened over the phone.

Most participants will have 1 visit. However, they can choose to have multiple visits within 4 weeks. The visit will include:

Physical exam that includes examination of the breasts and genital area
Breast ultrasound: A small hand-held device will be passed back and forth over the chest. It uses sound waves to create a picture of the breast tissue.
Pelvic ultrasound: A small, handheld device will be passed back and forth over the lower belly. It uses sound waves to create a picture of the ovaries.
Urine and blood test
A special x-ray called a DXA to measure the amount of fat in the body: The participant will lie still on a table while the x-ray takes pictures of the body.

X-ray of the hand: The picture will tell researchers how mature the participant s bones are.

Participants may be asked to come back 6 months later to repeat these tests.

Studieöversikt

Status

Aktiv, inte rekryterande

Betingelser

Detaljerad beskrivning

Over the past decade, there has been an alarming trend toward earlier breast development in girls. The contemporaneous obesity epidemic has led to speculation that obesity may be driving early puberty. However, questions remain about the validity of reports of early puberty among obese girls due to the difficulty in distinguishing fatty tissue from breast tissue in this population. The physiological basis for early puberty among obese girls is also unknown. The current proposal aims to investigate pubertal development in pre-menarchal obese compared with normal weight girls using more robust methods such as breast morphological staging via ultrasonography and intensive reproductive axis phenotyping. Study procedures include blood draws, DXA (for body composition), hand x-ray (for bone age), breast and transabdominal (pelvic) ultrasounds, and anthropometrics.

Studietyp

Observationell

Inskrivning (Faktisk)

Kontakter och platser

Det här avsnittet innehåller kontaktuppgifter för dem som genomför studien och information om var denna studie genomförs.

Studieorter

Förenta staterna
- North Carolina
  - Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, Förenta staterna, 27709
    - NIEHS, Research Triangle Park

Deltagandekriterier

Forskare letar efter personer som passar en viss beskrivning, så kallade behörighetskriterier. Några exempel på dessa kriterier är en persons allmänna hälsotillstånd eller tidigare behandlingar.

Urvalskriterier

Åldrar som är berättigade till studier

8 år till 14 år (Barn)

Tar emot friska volontärer

Nej

Kön som är behöriga för studier

Kvinna

Testmetod

Sannolikhetsprov

Studera befolkning

community sample

Beskrivning

INCLUSION CRITERIA:
Girls without a chronic medical condition
Normal weight (BMI 5th-85th%) or overweight/obese (BMI > 85th%)
8-14 years old
Some breast development
Pre-menarchal

EXCLUSION CRITERIA:

Treated with medications that may affect reproductive hormones (e.g. birth control pills).
Pregnancy

During the study, the PI s discretion may be used to determine final eligibility. The PI s discretion may be used at any point in the study (pre-screening, clinical/lab assessments, etc.) to ensure participants are not subjected to unnecessary procedures or visits.

Studieplan

Det här avsnittet ger detaljer om studieplanen, inklusive hur studien är utformad och vad studien mäter.

Hur är studien utformad?

Designdetaljer

Observationsmodeller: COHORT
Tidsperspektiv: PROSPECTIVE

Antal grupper/kohorter

Kohorter och interventioner

Grupp / Kohort
normal weight Girls age 8-14 below 85% in respect to weight for their age group
overweight Girls age 8-14 at or above 85% in respect to weight for their age group

Vad mäter studien?

Primära resultatmått

Resultatmått	Åtgärdsbeskrivning	Tidsram
To determine the correlation between Tanner breast staging and breast maturation scores using breast ultrasound in girls Tidsram: semiannually	To test the hypothesis that breast maturation in obese and normal weight girls primarily reflects hypothalamic-pituitary-ovarian activation as opposed to local (breast adipose tissue) estrogen production, we will use linear regression to determine if the relationship between breast maturation and ovarian size, uterine size and bone age (all markers of end organ response to estrogen) differs between the two weight groups (group by ovarian/uterine size/bone age interaction term). The finding of similar regression lines in the two groups would support this hypothesis while an upward shift in the regression line (greater y-intercept, similar slope) in the obese girls would indicate that a given breast maturation stage is achieved at a smaller ovarian/uterine volume and younger bone age in obese girls, suggesting the presence of an additional source of estrogen (adipose tissue) in obese girls.	semiannually

Sekundära resultatmått

Resultatmått	Åtgärdsbeskrivning	Tidsram
To determine the contribution of peripheral aromatization to breast development in obese girls. Tidsram: semiannually	Repeated measures from the same subject (visits 1,2, and follow up visits) will provide preliminary data for future studies investigating whether there is a difference in the pace of pubertal development in obese compared with normal weight girls. Squamous cells in the urine sample will be categorized as either superficial (mature; eg indicating estrogen exposure) or other . The primary measure of estrogenization will be the percent of superficial cells (%S), as previously described (Adgent 13, Robine 88). The %S will be compared between normal weight and obese subjects after controlling for breast stage determined by ultrasound. We anticipate that up to 25% of urine specimens may need to be excluded because of insufficient cells or inflammation and this may require an increase in enrollment.	semiannually

Samarbetspartners och utredare

Det är här du hittar personer och organisationer som är involverade i denna studie.

Sponsor

National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS)

Utredare

Huvudutredare: Natalie D Shaw, M.D., National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS)

Publikationer och användbara länkar

Den som ansvarar för att lägga in information om studien tillhandahåller frivilligt dessa publikationer. Dessa kan handla om allt som har med studien att göra.

Allmänna publikationer

Användbara länkar

<p>NIH Clinical Center Detailed Web Page</p>

Studieavstämningsdatum

Dessa datum spårar framstegen för inlämningar av studieposter och sammanfattande resultat till ClinicalTrials.gov. Studieposter och rapporterade resultat granskas av National Library of Medicine (NLM) för att säkerställa att de uppfyller specifika kvalitetskontrollstandarder innan de publiceras på den offentliga webbplatsen.

Studera stora datum

Studiestart (Faktisk)

15 december 2015

Primärt slutförande (Beräknad)

9 september 2027

Avslutad studie (Beräknad)

9 september 2027

Studieregistreringsdatum

Först inskickad

21 oktober 2015

Först inskickad som uppfyllde QC-kriterierna