ESPE Abstracts

Background: Anorexia nervosa (AN) is associated with a number of endocrine abnormalities including a low serum free thyroxine level. Hypothyroidism in AN is a recognised condition which is associated with a low normal free thyroxine and triiodothyronine levels (FT4, FT3) with an elevated reverse T3 (rT3). Serum TSH levels are normal or slightly reduced, suggesting a hypothalamic origin to the suppressed thyroid function which is norm...

Background: Following the intense debates and controversies regarding all forms of genital surgeries on minors, particularly the appropriateness of clitoral surgeries, assessing all outcomes of clitoromegaly management is imperative in directing future management.Methods: As part of a broader qualitative interview study involving 25 parents of patients with confirmed cases of clitoromegaly due to congenital adrenal hyper...

Background: Hypoparathyroidism is typically managed with calcitriol/alfacalcidol. Close monitoring of serum calcium is required as under-treatment causes symptomatic hypocalcaemia while over-treatment will cause nephrocalcinosis. We report three cases who demonstrated resistance to treatment during an intercurrent illness, necessitating increase in medication doses and monitoring.Objective/hypotheses/method/results: Case series Case 1: Two-month...

Background: There is limited reporting of the impact of genital difference on early childhood experience, although the young person’s viewpoint should be at the core of patient centred clinical decision making. The experience of girls living with Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia (CAH) may differ according to context, being influenced by interactions within the family, with specialist teams as well as prevailing social values. Clearly there is a need to inv...

Controversy continues regarding surgery in infancy to address atypical genitalia in girls with CAH and other Disorders of Sex Development. There is no consensus to surgical approach. Interest in outcomes of the range of surgical and non-surgical interventions for genital diversity is growing. It is widely acknowledged that the multi-professional management to promote long term psychosocial adaptation of the child based partly on confident parenting is essential. We conducted a...

It is acknowledged that children should collaborate in research about their health conditions, and DSD research has been criticised for promoting views of parents and health professionals. However parents are concerned about professionals talking to children about sensitive subjects including fertility and sexual activity. Children may have little experience of talking about their sex development. This makes direct research involving children with DSD particularly challenging....

Background: Congenital Hyperinsulinism in Infancy (CHI) is characterised by inappropriate insulin release. We currently attribute hypoglycaemia to β-cell dysfunction because of defects in the ion channel genes ABCC8 or KCNJ11. However, the CHI pancreas is also associated with inappropriate expression of foetal-like transcription factors and enhanced cell proliferation.Hypothesis: As the CHI pancreas bears similarities to the foetal pancreas, we hypo...

Background: Congenital hyperinsulinism in infancy (CHI) is associated with inappropriate insulin release from β-cells. This is causally linked to defects in the ion channel genes ABCC8 and KCNJ11 regulating insulin, but little is known about the metabolic support for sustained insulin exocytosis.Objective and hypotheses: We hypothesised that inappropriate insulin release in CHI would require sustained ATP generation by enhanced mit...

Background: Congenital hyperinsulinism of infancy (CHI) is the most common cause of severe hypoglycaemia in children. Although CHI arises from mutations in KATP channels which lead to inappropriate insulin secretion, CHI it also is associated with marked changes in islet organization.Aims and objectives: Our aim was to investigate the structure and composition of the islet capsule in CHI and age-matched control tissue.Me...

Background: Atypical forms of congenital hyperinsulinism in infancy (CHI-A) represent a novel subgroup of patients who present later in the neonatal period; have poor responses to medical intervention; an unremarkable histopathology and no known genetic cause of disease.Objective and hypotheses: To compare the expression profiles of insulin and somatostatin in islets from patients with CHI-A, diffuse CHI (CHI-D) and age-matched control tissue.<p clas...