ESPE Abstracts

Background: Turner Syndrome (TS) is a sex chromosome aneuploidy (45,X) associated with social skill difficulties. The 2016 Cincinnati clinical care guidelines recommend that the Program for the Education and Enrichment of Relational Skills (PEERS) social skills intervention is piloted. PEERS has previously been used in face-to-face interventions with male adolescents with autism spectrum conditions. This pilot project will be the first to examine the feasibili...

Introduction: Thyroid nodules are uncommon in the paediatric population, present in 5% of children but 35% of adults. However, up to 25% of paediatric nodules are malignant, compared to 5% in adults. It can be challenging to differentiate malignant nodularity from benign clinically, particularly in the presence of a thyroid disorder. We present two contrasting cases of adolescent girls with solitary thyroid nodules.Case 1: A 13-year-old girl was referred...

Background: X-linked hypophosphatemia (XLH) is a rare, progressive, genetic phosphate wasting disorder leading to rickets, lower limb deformities as well as short and disproportionate stature. The condition is inherited in the majority, however spontaneous mutations are reported in ≈30% of cases. Its rarity, coupled with its diverse clinical manifestations, may lead to delayed diagnosis and subsequently delayed treatment initiation. The objective of this an...

Thyroid nodular disease, either multinodular goitre (MNG) or solitary nodule, carries a higher malignancy risk in paediatric patients compared to adults requiring closer monitoring and investigation. We present a case series of patients with multinodular goitre who were confirmed to have tumour predisposition syndromes. Eight patients (six female) with MNG were identified using electronic medical records, based on presence of MNG and/or previous genetic testing confirming eith...

Background: While the primary function of vitamin D relates to calcium and bone metabolism, it is now recognised that vitamin D is a potent immunomodulator. In vitro, 1,25(OH)2D has been shown to suppress pro-inflammatory cytokines, such as TNF-α and IL6, while up regulating synthesis of anti-inflammatory cytokines, IL10 and IL4. Previous in vitro studies have yielded inconsistent results on the relationship between 25OHD and cytokines in adul...

Introduction: Turner’s syndrome (TS) is caused by an abnormality of one of the X chromosomes. Short stature or slow growth is one of the first manifestations of TS and it is recommended that GH therapy should be initiated as soon as it becomes apparent that affected girls are not growing normally to optimise final adult height. Idiopathic intracranial hypertension (IIH) is a well-known side effect of GH therapy, and it has also been reported in girls with TS with or witho...

Introduction and Aim: The Incidence of Type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM) varies markedly between populations and over time. Recently a number of high incidence countries, including Ireland, have reported a stabilisation and/or reduction in their T1DM incidence rate (IR) in childhood. Ireland, a high incidence country for T1DM, experienced a dramatic increase in T1DM incidence between 1997 and 2008, a stabilisation in incidence between 2014 and 2018 followed by a...

Background: The effect of maternal obesity and the associated maternal inflammation on neonatal and paediatric health and wellbeing over the early childhood years is not fully understood.Objective and hypotheses: This study aimed to determine the impact of maternal and fetal inflammatory factors on infant anthropometric measurements.Method: 265 mother–infant pairs from an RCT assessing the effect of a low glycaemic index diet ...

Introduction: Patients with type 1 diabetes (T1D) are at high risk of developing vascular complications. Endothelial dysfunction is considered the early reversible stage in the development of diabetes related vascular disease. Early detection and management of endothelial dysfunction can delay or even prevent the development of vascular complications.Aim: Endothelial dysfunction is associated with poor metabolic control in adolescents with T1D. Based on ...

Background: Controlling eating rate may be a mechanism for reducing calorie consumption. We need to understand the physiological basis of this to design effective paediatric interventions.Objective and hypotheses: This study investigated the effect of eating rate during lunch on post-meal neural response (fMRI), satiety hormone levels, appetite ratings (VAS), meal enjoyment, memory for recent eating and snack consumption.Method: Tw...