Abstract

Usama B.O. Baqir and Muhammad K. Akram*

To evaluate the role of serum levels of androgen hormones like FT and dihydrotestosterone (DHT) in investigation of idiopathic hirsute women and to compare the obtained results with that produced for hirsute women with poly cystic ovaries syndrome (PCOS). We conducted this multi case-control study and single-center analysis of hormones in the Department of Biochemistry, College of Medicine, university of Baghdad and in the Kamal Al-Samarai Hospital, Baghdad, Iraq during the period from November 2012 to July 2013. It included fifty-six hirsute women and twenty-eight non-hirsute healthy control women. The hirsute women were subdivided into two groups according to their etiology of hirsutism; Group 1 PCOS (n=28) and Group 2 Idiopathic hirsutism (IH, n=28). Investigation included serum measurements of FT, TT, DHT, dehydroepiandrosterone sulphate (DHEAS), PSA, FSH, LH, Prolactin, and 17-OH progesterone (17-OHP) by using enzymes Immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and MiniVIDAS techniques. The mean (±SD) values of serum TT and FT concentrations of PCOS women were significantly higher than those of IH women and controls, for both (p<0.0001). However, and of important results, 13 out of the 28 (46 %) IH women and 12 out of the 28 women with PCOS (43 %) had serum FT concentrations above the upper normal reference range,while those who had elevated serum TT concentrations were 4% for IH and 14.0% for PCOS. The mean values of PSA and DHT of IH and PCOS groups did not differ significantly from that of controls, as well as between hirsute women groups themselves. Significant positive correlations were observed between serum FT levels and serum concentrations of each of TT, DHT, PSA, and the score of hirsutism in IH and PCOS groups. This study concluded that measurement of serum FT concentration is the better androgenic marker for investigation of hirsute women with idiopathic and PCOS.