ESPE Abstracts

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/ Aims: Hyperuricemia (HU) is a frequent finding in childhood obesity, ranging between 12 and 40%, and associates to a variable extent with different components of the metabolic syndrome (MS). In this study, the effect of gender, (a Belgian native vs a non-Belgian native) descent and degree of general and central adiposity on serum uric acid (SUA) and the prevalence of HU was investigated in a multi-ethnic population of overweight/obese children and ...

Obese children are at risk for increased DHEAS production, which is assumed to arise from hyperinsulinemia, hyperleptinemia, increased IGF-1 production or chronic low grade inflammation. Exaggerated adrenarche is suspected to be a forerunner of polycystic ovary syndrome in girls, but its consequences in obese boys are less well studied. In this study we evaluated the presence of exaggerated adrenarche in a cohort of obese boys and girls and investigated whether obese children ...

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)...