Precocious puberty due to a hypothalamic hamartoma in a patient surviving to late middle age

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Abstract
A hypothalamic hamartoma was found, at necrosy, attached to the mammillary bodies and tuber cinereum in a 62 year old woman with a history of precocious puberty. The hamartoma contained nerve cells, and myelinated fibres which had connexions with the capsule of the mammillary bodies, the tuberal nuclei and premammillary area. Neurosecretory substance was found in a few of the cells and fibres of the hamartoma. In cases of hypothalamic hamartoma, reported in the literature, as being associated with precocious puberty definite fibre connexions with the hypothalamus were demonstrated. These fibre connexions were absent or doubtful in cases of normal adults. It is concluded that in cases of sexual pre-cociousness the hamartoma acts like an overdrive on the posterior hypothalamus via a neurosecretory mechanism, consequently affecting gonadal function.