ESPE Abstracts

Background: Transient hypoparathyroidism is a recognised cause of hypocalcaemia during the neonatal period and difficult to differentiate from permanent forms.Objective and hypotheses: We present the challenges of monitoring and managing neonates with hypocalcaemia and inappropriately low PTH.Method: Cases 1 and 2 had congenital heart disease (CHD) but were FISH negative for 22q11 deletion. Both were treated with supplemental doses...

Background: There is evidence that baseline and peak cortisol response to the low dose short Synacthen test (LDSST) varies with pubertal status and gender in children with asthma on inhaled corticosteroids. There are no published data reporting effects of puberty on cortisol response to the insulin tolerance test (ITT) in childhood and adolescence.Objective and hypotheses: To determine whether pubertal status, age or gender influence basal and peak corti...

Few treatments for type 2 diabetes (T2D) and obesity achieve meaningful long-term weight-loss and are often accompanied by nausea and vomiting. Thus, there is a critical need for a new generation of obesity medications that provide glycemic control with enhanced hypophagic response without nausea. Our group has developed and tested two new monomeric chimeric peptides against a novel target for obesity treatment concomitant with T2D in the form of dual agonism of the anorectic ...

Designing monomeric dual or triple agonists based on glucagon-like peptide (GLP)-1 with glucagon, and/or glucose-dependent insulinotropic polypeptide (GIP) are promising novel approaches for anti-obesity drugs tackling different weight-regulatory pathways, albeit such developments continue to suffer from significant gastrointestinal illnesses. Our own studies have focused instead on the combination of GLP-1 receptor agonists (GLP-1RAs) with neuropeptide Y1- and Y2-receptor (Y1...

Genomic imprinting in mammals is controlled by DNA methylation. This essential epigenetic phenomenon mediates the mono-allelic expression of about hundred autosomal protein-coding genes and hundreds of regulatory non-coding RNAs, such that these become expressed from one of the two parental alleles only. Although the first imprinted genes were discovered less than thirty years ago, given their key roles in fetal development, homeostasis and brain functions, these exceptional g...

Background: Small for gestational age (SGA) without subsequent catch up growth is an indication for GH treatment in Europe, the US, and Korea but not in Australia. However, many SGA are likely to be included under the ‘short stature and slow growth’ (SSSG) indication. It is unknown to what extent children born SGA are included in the Australian indications or how they differ from non-SGA patients within each indication and gender.Objective and ...

Background: Hereditary Nephrogenic Diabetes Insipidus (HNDI) is an uncommon disorder due to a resistance to anti diuretic hormone (ADH) leading to a reduced urinary concentrating ability. The X-linked form is fully expressed in hemizygous male patients, but diabetes insipidus may also present in heterozygous females where it must be distinguished from autosomal and other secondary causes.Objective and hypotheses: We report a mother and daughter with HNDI...

Background: Normal thyroid function is necessary for the optimal growth promoting effects of GH. Changes in the hypothalamic-pituitary-thyroid (HPT) axis following GH have been reported in subjects initially thought to be euthyroid. A specific group of patients, children with Prader-Willi syndrome (PWS), are thought to have a ‘vulnerable’ HPT axis.Objective and hypotheses: To evaluate the impact of paediatric GH therapy on thyroid hormone statu...

Introduction: Anemia in children is still quite common, sometimes it is a secondary symptom of another rare disorder. Rendu-Osler-Weber disease, a genetically determined haemorrhagic diathesis, is characterized by the occurrence of vascular malformations leading to bleeding from the nose, skin and mucous membranes and to various internal organs. Diagnosis facilitates the occurrence of the disease in relatives of the first degree, however, due to the progressive nature of vascu...

Background: Mixed gonadal dysgenesis is most commonly associated with 45,XO/46,XY karyotype.Objective and hypotheses: We report three cases that illustrate the genotype and phenotype variability of mixed gonadal dysgenesis.Methods: Data was extracted from Pediatric Endocrinology charts in a tertiary care centre after consenting the parents.Results: i) A 13 year old patient, 45,XO/46,X, isodicentric Y chromoso...