ESPE Abstracts

Background: The increase of global childhood obesity has led to an increase of associated co-morbidities also at a young age. The pro-inflammatory state and insulin resistance are two master regulators of several complications, including hypertension and pre-diabetes frequently connected in a complex crosstalk.Aim: To evaluate the relationship between glucose alterations and blood pressure and the pathogenetic involvemen...

Introduction: Lipodystrophy syndromes are characterized by a progressive metabolic impairment secondary to adipose tissue dysfunction and genetic background. The role of microbiota is still uninvestigated.Objective: Evaluate the gut microbiome ecology in relation to dietary and clinical parameters in two infant siblings with congenital generalized lipodystrophy type 4 (CGL4) before and after treatment with recombinant le...

Background: Lipodystrophy syndromes comprise a large group of extremely rare diseases characterized by loss or dysfunction of adipose tissue. Due to their extreme rarity and variability, research in the field of lipodystrophy is difficult for single centres warranting larger co-operations.Methods: Therefore, the European Consortium of Lipodystrophies decided to found an international registry in 2016. This registry is ba...

Background: It has been previously proposed that not all children with short stature displaying an inadequate response to tests for growth hormone (GH) secretion truly suffer from GH deficiency (GHD). Instead, amongst these, solely children with an identifiable monogenic cause of GHD or an identifiable functional or anatomical anomaly in the hypothalamic-pituitary axis should be considered GHD. The remaining patients should be defined as affected by “sho...

Background: ‘Thelarche variant’ (TV), also known as ‘unsustained/slowly progressive puberty’ or ‘exaggerated thelarche’, is a term used to describe girls with premature thelarche and intermediate features between isolated premature thelarche (PT) and central precocious puberty (CPP). Despite being characterized by a FSH predominant response and by a peak LH response <5 IU/L to GnRH test, a univocal definition is lacking.<...

Background: Hypogonadism is one of the major diagnostic criteria of Prader-Willi syndrome (PWS). A hypogonadotropic hypogonadism is often present as a result of hypothalamic dysfunction (together with other hormonal disorders, such as growth hormone deficiency and hypothyroidism).Presentation: A 8.5-year-old boy with genetically-confirmed PWS (maternal uniparental disomy) presented in our Endocrinology Unit for routinely follow-up. Therapy with rhGH was ...

Background: Neuroendocrine tumors (NETs) represent a complex entity of neoplasm arising from different cell types of neural crest origin. They can produce and/or secrete various hormones or vasoactive substances. Usually sporadic, they can occur in association with other cancers, as part of a multiple endocrine neoplasia type 1 (MEN1), von Hippel–Lindau disease, von Recklinghausen, tuberous sclerosis.Case report: We report a case of neuroendocrine t...

Background: GLUT1 deficiency syndrome (GLUT1DS) is a treatable epileptic encephalopathy resulting from impaired glucose transport into the brain. Clinical features comprise motor and mental developmental delay, seizures with infantile onset, deceleration of head growth often resulting in acquired microcephaly, and a movement disorder with ataxia, dystonia, and spasticity. While it is known that ketogenic diet may cause growth retardation, GH deficiency (GHD) may represent anot...

Background: In 2003 recombinant human growth hormone (rhGH) was approved by European Medicines Agency to treat short children born small for gestational age (SGA), but so far no study evaluated the prevalence of SGA children with short stature who qualify for rhGH treatment in Europe.Objectives: To investigate the prevalence of SGA and short stature in children born SGA and of SGA children who qualify for rhGH treatment ...

Background: Chronic granulomatous disease (CGD) is a rare primary immunodeficiency. Growth retardation is a common finding, due to recurrent severe infections and inflammatory complications. Bone marrow transplantation (BMT) can lead to stable remission, with overall pediatric survival rates > 90% after non-myeloablative conditioning transplants. As reported in previous studies, growth rates in CGD recovered following BMT.<strong...