Assessment of puberty in relation to L-carnitine and hormonal replacement therapy in beta-thalassemic patients.

Objective: To investigate puberty in a group of thalassemic patients with delayed or arrested pubertal development and to compare the effects of hormonal and L-carnitine therapy on puberty in those patients.

Patients: Thirty-two -thalassemic patients with arrested or failure of puberty were enrolled for 1 year in this study.

Method: Clinical pubertal assessment and laboratory investigations were done for all patients at the beginning, 6 months later clinical pubertal assessment was done.