ESPE Abstracts

Background: GAIA is a health service of Meyer Children Hospital composed of a multidisciplinary team specialized in the management of children victims of child abuse. Sexual abuse occurs when a child is engaged in sexual activities that cannot comprehend, for which the child is developmentally unprepared and cannot give consent, and/or that violate the law or social taboos of society. The sexual activities may include all forms of oral-genital, genital, or anal contact by or t...

Background: Ovarian sex differentiation network involves a panoply of interacting factors. Yet, no single sex-determining factor has been identified to be an equivalent of SRY or SOX9 in the testis. Recently, data suggested CBX2 as a pioneer regulator promoting testis development. In addition to its implication in ovary pathway differentiation which remains unclear.Objective and hypotheses: To deepen our understanding of the regulatory network that under...

Acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) is the most prevalent cancer in childhood. Over the past decades, survival rates increased, but relapse is still associated with a poor prognosis, especially if the bone marrow (BM) is affected. Marrow adipose tissue (MAT) constitutes a major part of the BM niche, but its impact on normal hematopoiesis versus leukemia initiation, progression and relapse has only recently gained attention. MAT is very sensitive to changes in the patient’s...

Background: There exists limited data regarding genetic etiology of hypophosphatemic rickets in Turkey.Objective and hypotheses: To investigate the type of genetic defect in 16 index children and their families (12 unrelated, 1 related).Method: Following clinical and laboratory assessment, PHEX analysis was made initially unless a mutation in another gene was suspected. If negative, FGF23, SLC34A3, SL...

Background: Congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH) due to steroid 11β-hydroxylase deficiency is the second most common form of CAH, resulting from a mutation in the CYP11B1 gene. Steroid 11β-hydroxylase deficiency results in excessive mineralcorticoids and androgen production leading to hypertension, virilisation, and ambiguous genitalia of genetically female infants.Objective: The aim of the study was to identify the molecular detect ca...

Background: The CYP27B1 gene encodes 25-hydroxyvitamin D-1α-hydroxylase. Mutations of this gene cause a rare autosomal recessive disorder, vitamin D-dependent rickets type 1A.Objective and hypotheses: To investigate CYP27B1 mutations in children when rickets was associated with normal or high vitamin D levels and low or inappropriately normal calcitriol levels.Method: All coding exons and intron-exon boundari...

Background: Prenatal dexamethasone treatment (Pdex) has been used since the 1980s to prevent virilization in female offspring suspected to have congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH). However, due to lack of strong evidence for its best practice as well as limited data regarding long term adverse effects, use of dex is highly controversial. This study reveals the current medical practice regarding Pdex in female fetuses at risk of CAH due to 21 hydroxylase defic...

Background: Diencephalic syndrome (DS), diencephalic cachexia or Russell syndrome, is a rare, rapidly fatal condition, usually occurring during the first year of life, as a result of a hypothalamic dysfunction due to hypothalamic/chiasmatic tumors. Clinical features of DS are weight loss leading to cachexia despite a normal caloric intake and growth rate, hyperalertness, hyperkinesis, and euphoria. Treatment is related to treatment of the hypothalamic lesion. The role of cytok...

Introduction: Pituitary adenomas in children are rare and account for 3% of intracranial tumors in the pediatric population (1), dominated by prolactinomas and corticotropic adenomas, but plurisecreting adenomas are exceptional. We report a case of a 14-year-old girl with a pituitary macroadenoma with a prolactin-predominant plurisecretory immunohistochemical profile revealed by an intracranial hypertension syndrome with a good therapeutic response to cabergol...

Background: Cytochrome C oxidase (COX) is the fourth component of the respiratory chain. This protein is located within the internal membrane of mitochondria. COX deficiency is an inherited mitochondrial disease associated with considerable genetic and clinical variability(1). In fact, four clinical subtypes of this condition have been identified, each one with several phenotypic and genetic variants. Mitochondrial complex IV deficiency nuclear type 4 is a rar...