الفهرس 
INTRODUCTIONOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
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Abstract
Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is considered the commonest endocrine disorder that affects women during the reproductive years, and the commonest cause of infertility as a result of anovulation. The 3 cardinal features of PCOS include anovulation, hyperandrogenism and PCOM.
This syndrome is characterized by involving many systems with a various phenotypes and a wide range of manifestations that is potentially affected by ethnic backgrounds. Cutaneous manifestations are a crucial part of PCOS that occur due to excess androgen release by the ovary. These manifestations include hirsutism, acne and AGA. In addition, IR, metabolic complications, and cardiovascular complications are common as well
The current study aimed to detect the prevalence of dermatologic manifestations among an Egyptian PCOS cohort and to study the correlation between these manifestations and the underlying hormonal& metabolic alterations.
The study was conducted on 53 patients diagnosed as PCOS aged 20-40 years and 50 non-PCOS controls of the same age group who were selected from the infertility outpatient clinic of Alexandria Al-Shatby university hospital.
Any participant suffering from endocrinal disorders, or is pregnant, lactating or receiving any medications that may have an effect on the androgen level was excluded from the study
In all participants history was taken including family, medical, drug and menstrual history. Anthropometric measurments were recorded including weight, height and waist circumference and they were subjected to pelvic ultrasonography and to dermatologic examination focusing on hirsutism, acne, AGA and AN.
Serum level of total & free testosterone, DHEAS, PRL and TSH were measured for the PCOS group. Additionally, fasting plasma glucose and fasting plasma insulin levels were measured and the HOMA-IR equation for IR was calculated.
In contrast to several previous studies, the results of this work showed that hirsutism was the most prevalent dermatologic manifestation in females with PCOS followed by AGA, acne and AN in a descending order. All these manifestations were more common in PCOS patients in comparison with the control non-PCOS females.
Regarding the phenotypes of PCOS, the commonest phenotype in the present study was the classic hyperandrogenic phenotype. Approximately 1/5 of the studied PCOS patients revealed no evidence of hyperandrogenism whether clinically or biochemically. A considerable percentage of PCOS females had cutaneous hyperandrogenic signs with normal level of androgens, whereas the possibility of having biochemical hyperandrogenemia with absence of cutaneous hyperandrogenic signs hardly occurs.
Nearly 75 % of the PCOS females were proved to have ≥ 1 of the hyperandrogenic skin manifestations ( hirsutism, acne and AGA ) confirming that the cutaneous manifestations are markedly prevalent in this syndrome. On the other hand, about 1/4 of PCOS females was