CONTEXT:

Some pediatric endocrinologists recommend that girls with central precocious puberty (CPP) have cranial magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) performed only if they are younger than 6 years of age. However, no practice guidelines exist. OBJECTIVE:

To assess the frequency of intracranial lesions in girls with CPP. STUDY DESIGN:

We searched six electronic databases (PubMed, Cochrane, Web of Science, SCOPUS, ProQuest, and Dissertation & Theses) from 1990 through December 2015. We included studies on girls with CPP and MRI data. Case reports, case series, studies from the same author/group with the same patient population, and studies with conditions predisposing to CPP were excluded. Two physicians independently reviewed the search results and extracted data. A random-effects model was used to obtain pooled prevalence of positive MRI's across studies. Heterogeneity among studies was evaluated with the Q-statistic. Publication bias was assessed with funnel plots and Egger's test. Pooled prevalence was computed by age group. A linear regression assessed the relationship between intracranial lesion prevalence and healthcare availability. We included 15 studies with a total of 1853 girls <8 year old evaluated for CPP. The pooled prevalence from all studies was 0.09 [95% confidence interval (CI) 0.06-0.12]. There was a significant heterogeneity, indicating the appropriateness of a random effects model in computing pooled prevalence. In the few studies stratified by age group, pooled prevalence was 25% in girls <6 years vs. 3% in girls 6-8 of age. CONCLUSIONS:

Our results support that the benefit of routine MRIs in girls with CPP older than 6 years of age without any neurological concerns is not clear-cut.