ESPE Abstracts

Background: Premature pubarche refers to the appearance of pubic hair without other signs of puberty or virilization before 8 years in girls and 9 years in boys. The etiology of premature pubarche is not known. It has been suggested that an early maturation of the zona reticularis of the adrenal cortex is at the basis of premature pubarche, leading to an increase of adrenal androgens to levels that are normally seen in early puberty. In alternative, in children with normal and...

Background: GH secretion increases physiologically during puberty and GH levels correlate with pubertal stage. Therefore, puberty is the most likely time for normalization of GH secretion in children with GHD. No studies have so far evaluated in children diagnosed as GH-deficient during childhood potential predictors of response to the reevaluation of GH secretion during puberty.Objective and hypotheses: The aim of our study is to establish and compare t...

Background: Cyclic treatment with bisphosphonates (BP) is now considered a ‘standard care’ for children with osteogenesis imperfecta (OI). Vitamin D is a necessary nutrient for bone health for all children but especially for those with OI. In the literature few studies have considered the relationship between bone mineral density, vitamin D and pubertal stage in children treated with BP for OI.Objective and hypotheses: The purpose of this study...

Background: Combined pituitary hormone deficiency (CPHD) is a condition that causes deficiency of several hormones produced by the pituitary gland. The first signs of this condition include a failure to grow at the expected rate and short stature that usually becomes apparent in early childhood. Other features of CPHD include hypothyroidism, delayed puberty, and deficiency of the hormonal cortisol. Some conditions may exacerbate the growth failure of CPHD. Osteogenesis imperfe...

Background: Endogenous GH secretion physiologically increases during puberty. In particular, a correlation between GH levels and pubertal stages can be stated. Therefore, it is possible that some patients with childhood-onset GH deficiency (GHD) at puberty normalize their GH secretion. Finally, there are not so far assessed potential predictors of persistent GHD in patients during puberty.Objective and hypotheses: Our study aims evaluating the normalisat...

Background: Ovarian reserve is defined as the functional potential of the ovary, which reflects the number and quality of the follicles left in the ovary at any given time. In literature there studies about the evaluation of ovarian reserve after ovariectomy for tumors and cysts, using serum markers, such as inhibin-B, and anti-Mullerian hormone (AMH), combined to ultrasonographic markers, in adult women but none in peri-pubertal girls.Case presentation:...

Background: Different studies have underlined the role of anti-Müllerian hormone (AMH) and inhibin B as markers of the ovarian function in paediatric and adolescent patients with Turner syndrome (TS).Objective and hypotheses: Our study aims to verify the role of AMH in a cohort of patients affected by TS.Method: We analysed 23 TS patients, aged 2–34 years, describing their auxological parameters and the pubertal developme...