ESPE Abstracts

Background: Many Muslim adolescents and children insist on fasting during the holy month of Ramadan. There are limited data on the patterns of diabetes management specifically about children and adolescents.Aim: To ascertain the knowledge, attitude, and practices to the management of diabetes during Ramadan fasting among physicians who look after children and adolescents living with diabetes in Arab countries.Methods: An electronic...

Introduction: The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region has witnessed increasing number of researchers over last decade; for example, in-between 2015 and 2016, the number of researchers (in full time equivalent) per 1 million inhabitants was 2.4K in UAE, 1.1K in Morocco, 680 in Egypt, 604 in Qatar and 242 in Oman. Research and Development investment among Arabic countries was the highest in Tunisia, Egypt, Morocco, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirate...

Background: Paragnagliomas and pheochromocytomas are rare neuroendocrine tumors that originate from the paraganglionic cells of the autonomic nervous systems. These tumors may be extra or intra-adrenal in site. The use of antihypertensive medications is usually challenging in these patients. Long acting alpha and beta blockade can be quite useful preoperatively but challenging postoperatively. We present a case of familial paraganglioma that was successfully t...

Background: Wolfram syndrome type 2 (WFS2) characterized by childhood GI ulcers/ bleeding, diabetes, and neurodegeneration with optic atrophy and hearing loss was recently elucidated as caused by CISD2/NAF-1 gene mutation. NAF-1 suppression in cells results in intra-mitochondrial accumulation of iron, increased ROS generation and consequently increased cellular apoptosis. So far only two mutations in four families were reported.Objective: Elucidate the c...

Short-chain L-3-hydroxyacyl-CoA (SCHAD, HADH) deficiency is characterized by diazoxide-responsive hyperinsulinemic hypoglycemia in the neonatal or infancy periods. These patients have severe protein (especially leucine) sensitivity. HADH mutations are recessively inherited with less than 50 patients reported so far. The mechanism behind unregulated insulin secretion in SCHAD deficiency is not understood but may involve changes in protein-protein interactions with glutamate deh...

Background: Mutations in Steroidogenic factor 1 (SF-1; also known as NR5A1), a transcription factor involved in sexual differentiation, steroidogenesis and reproduction, have been associated with mild to severe XY and XX DSDs and adrenal failure. Asplenia and complete XY sex reversal were recently reported in a Palestinian patient homozygous for p.R103Q NR5A1 mutation.Clinical Cases: Five Pales...

Background: Processing of Precursor 1 (POP1) is a core protein component of the Ribonuclease-Mitochondrial RNA Processing (RNase-MRP) enzymatic complex, an essential complex in all eukaryotes. Mutations in RMRP, encoding the RNA moiety of the complex cause cartilage-hair hypoplasia – anauxetic dysplasia (CHH-AD) spectrum disorders, characterized by severe disproportionate short stature. Recently, five patients harboring mutations in POP1 have been report...

Background: Turner syndrome (TS) is a common genetic disorder with an incidence of 1 in 2500 live births due to chromosomal errors resulting in monosomy for the X chromosome with or without mosaicism. Familial TS has been rarely reported. We report two families having TS.Methods: We report 6 patients with TS who had been referred to the Endocrinology department and Pediatric department at Hedi Chaker hospital, Sfax, Tuni...

Background: Hetero- and homozygous mutations in Steroidogenic Factor1 (SF1, NR5A1) cause 46,XY and 46,XX disorders of sex development (DSD), azoospermia, and primary ovarian insufficiency. NR5A1 is also involved in embryonic spleen development, by transactivation of T-cell Leukemia Homeobox 1 (TLX1). Hypo- or asplenism have occasionally been observed in DSD patients with NR5A1 mutations.<p clas...