ESPE Abstracts

Background: Micronutrients play a fundamental role not only in general health, but also in treatment and protection of various diseases. Selenium and iron are two of the five major elements, aside from vitamins, detected as anti-oxidant agents, widely used with the aim of preventing diseases.Objective and hypotheses: The purpose of this study is to evaluate serum levels of selenium and ferritin in acute infections of childhood.Meth...

Background: A 33-year-old woman with a history of adrenocortical carcinoma (ACC), surgically treated aged 4, presented for prenatal screening at 20 weeks gestation. Ultrasound examination identified that the female foetus had a 3-cm adrenal lesion. She had a positive family history for multiple-endocrine-neoplasia-type 2/MEN2 (paternal grandmother) and her father’s cousin was diagnosed with ACC and Li-Fraumeni syndrome (LFS) at 30 year old. Calcitonin, PTH and cathecholam...

Background: Hyperthyroidism is a condition rarely found in children. In the majority of cases, it is a Grave's disease whose clinical expression is very similar to that observed in adults.Objective: describe the clinical, evolutionary and therapeutic epidemiological features in children with hyperthyroidism and especially Grave's disease.Materials and Methods: This is a ret...

Background: Ectopic thyroid tissue can be found anywhere along the normal path of thyroid descent, but is most commonly found at the base of the tongue, in which case it may be referred to as a lingual thyroid. Although the patients are usually asymptomatic, it can lead to symptoms such as dysphonia and dysphagia. We present a child patient with a lingual thyroid resulting in severe dysphagia that was cured surgically.Case presen...

Background: Fahr syndrome is a rare degenerative disease, characterized by the presence of calcification of the basal ganglia.Autosomal recessive or dominant, variable penetrance.Usually asymptomatic in the first 2 decades, the disease typically manifests itself either at 30 years of age by the appearance of neuropsychiatric disorders, or at age 60 by progressive dementia with extrapyramidal syndrome.Case p...

The association of thyroid carcinoma with Graves' disease is considered rare and remains exceptional because it accounts for only 1-2% of childhood cancers.We report an observation of a 10-year-old girl from a goitrous endemic area (CHLEF) with exophthalmia. It shows signs of obvious thyrotoxicosis with with a very firm, homogeneous and asymmetrical goiter on the right.. A hormonal assessment, an echography and a thyroid scintigraphy confirm the ...

Adrenocortical carcinoma is very rare in children, with annual incidence of 0.21 case per million patient younger than 20 years. At this article I reported two patients. First case was A 16-month-old girl presented with 3 months history of increased appetite and rapid weight gaining, appearance of hair at pubic area for 2 months and acne on face for one-month duration. Parents are non-consanguineous, had no endocrine disorders or tumors. On examination: chubby baby, cushingoid...

Background: The hepatokine FGF21 signals through a dual receptor complex consisting of FGFR1c and the obligatory co-receptor β-Klotho to regulate glucose and lipid metabolism. Interestingly, female mice with Fgf21 transgenic overexpression are not only resistant to high-fat diet induced obesity but also present with hypogonadotropic hypogonadism (HH) and infertility. Loss-of-function (LOF) mutations in FGFR1 are a frequent cause of congenital HH (CHH). W...

Background: Triple A syndrome (AAAS, OMIM#231550) is a very rare inherited disease characterized by the association of chronic adrenal insufficiency, achalasia, alacrima and central and peripheral neurological disorders. It is caused by mutations in the AAAS gene which encodes the nuclear pore complex scaffolding protein ALADIN. The relative prevalence and genotype of AAAS in the Maghreb countries has not been ascertained.Objective and hypotheses: To est...

Background: Congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH), resulting from mutations in CYP11B1 (gene encoding 11β-hydroxylase), is a rare autosomal recessive disorder due to an impairment of the last steroidogenesis step. Consequences are a decreased cortisol secretion, elevated plasma levels of ACTH, and accumulation of steroid precursors responsible of hyperandrogenism and hypertension. It is the second most frequent cause of CAH after 21-Hydroxylase de...