ESPE Abstracts

Background: Virilization at puberty in girls remains a challenge. Several differential diagnoses must be considered including disorders of sex development (DSD) and tumors.Case Report: We report an 11.5-year-old girl who was referred to our center for progressive cliteromegaly since 6 months. Past medical history was remarkable for prematurity of 36 weeks gestation and for mild ongoing psychomotor delay. At presentation ...

Background: At present, treatment of „classic" congenital adrenal hyperplasia (21-hydroxylase-deficiency, 21OHD) consists of glucocorticoid and mineralocorticoid replacement. However, often androgen excess and its negative metabolic impact are difficult to control without accepting glucocorticoid overtreatment, especially in adolescence. In healthy subjects oral contraceptives (containing ethinylestradiol) increase cortisol binding capacity and free c...

Objectives: Deficiency of the short stature homeobox-containing (SHOX) gene is a potential etiology of short stature in children. The phenotypic spectrum of SHOX deficiency disorders, caused by haploinsufficiency of the SHOX-gene and inherited in a pseudo-autosomal dominant manner, is highly variable, even within the same family, ranging from nonspecific short stature to Leri-Weill dyschondrosteosis (LWD). Short stature, mesomelia and Madelung deformity define the classic clin...

Background: In children, congenital hyperinsulinism is the most common cause for endogenous hyperinsulinaemic hypoglycaemia (HH). Beyond infancy other diagnoses may be considered, such as insulinoma, an insulin-secreting neuroendocrine tumour (NET) arising mostly from the pancreas. The latter is a rare cause of HH in children. The estimated incidence of insulinoma is 1:250’000 person-years of all age groups with a median age at diagnosis of 47 years. Herein, we report an ...

Background: Human milk is considered the most advantageous source of nourishment for infants. Although there is a growing body of evidence showing that human milk feeding fosters early neurodevelopment, the underlying process is still not completely known. Indeed, clinical and animal research has linked human milk to enhanced myelination in the infant's central nervous system, however, access to human oligodendrocytes and neurons in the early stages of develop...

Introduction: Congenital leptin deficiency can be treated with the human leptin analogon metreleptin as first reported in 1999. To date, the long-term effects (> 1 year) of metreleptin treatment on anthropometry and comorbidities have only been described in 8 patients with leptin deficiency. Here, we present the long-term effects of metreleptin substitution on weight and comorbidities in a patient with bioinactive leptin.Metho...

Background: Knowing the changes of cardiovascular risk factors (CRF) in relation to weight loss would be helpful to advise overweight children and their parents and to decide whether drugs should be prescribed in addition to lifestyle intervention.Objective and hypotheses: The aim of the study was to determine the degree of overweight reduction to improve CRFs in overweight children.Method: We studied changes of blood pressure (BP)...

Background: Patients with Klinefelter syndrome (KS) have an increased risk for osteoporosis and fractures in adulthood. Data on bone mineralization in adolescence are limited, although it is a known at-risk period for vitamin D deficiency, low calcium intake and evolving hypogonadism.Objective and hypotheses: To study the bone mineralization in KS adolescents and its relationship with vitamin D/calcium and gonadal status. KS adolescents with low calcium ...

Background: Cancer cells have a high NAD turnover rate due to their increased cell proliferation and DNA repair. Nicotinamide phosphoribosyltransferase (NAMPT) is the key enzyme of the NAD salvage pathway, a regulator of the intracellular NAD pool and of the activity of Sirtuins (SIRTs), a class of NAD-dependent deacetylases.Objective and hypotheses: Cancer cells are highly dependent on NAD and are expected to be more susceptible to an inhibition of NAD ...

Background: Several studies show impaired glucose tolerance at a certain number of years after start of growth hormone in SGA-children.Objective and hypotheses: To perform a longitudinal and cross-sectional evaluation of the oGTTs (glucose-insulin-pairs) in prepubertal GH-treated SGA-children and to evaluate if ISI and HOMA are effective surrogates for glucose tolerance and of prognostic value (0–1 year data).Method: In 81 pre...