ESPE Abstracts

Background: Among their metabolic effects, GH and its mediator IGF1 have been reported to influence hematopoiesis. Indeed, GH/IGF1 axis promotes erythropoiesis and GH deficiency (GHD) has been associated with a normochromic and normocytic anemia both in adults and in children. In contrast, in vivo data on the effects of GH/IGF1 axis on leukocytes and platelets are scanty.Objective and hypotheses: To evaluate the effects of 4-years GH replacement...

Introduction: Familial glucocorticoid deficiency (FGD) is a rare autosomal recessive disease characterized by ACTH-resistant isolated cortisol deficiency. FGD usually presents with hypoglycemia, convulsions, prolonged jaundice, and marked skin hyperpigmentation in the early period of life. Several defects in MC2R, MRAP, MCM4, NNT, and TXNRD2 genes are related to FGD. In all these situations, plasma ACTH is high. By contrast, all reported cases of glucocorticoi...

Objectives: Among adverse effects of GH, a particular attention should be given to glucose homeostasis. The aim of the study was evaluate the effect of GH therapy on glucose homeostasis in children with GHD after 10 years of treatment.Methods: 30 patients (8 M/22 F, age 7.00 ± 2.61 years) with GHD at diagnosis and 30 healthy children comparable to patients for age, sex and BMI were enrolled. Glucose, insulin, HOMA-IR ...

The initial priority of newborn screening (NBS) for congenital hypothyroidism (CH) should be the detection of the primary forms (prevalence: 1:2000-3000), characterized by elevated TSH and reduced FT4 values. When financial resources are available, guidelines recommend adding measurement of T4 or FT4 to screen for central CH (CeCH), characterized by reduced T4/FT4 and reduced, normal or inadequately elevated TSH. Most NBS programs for CH are based on TSH measurement only, ther...

Introduction: The short stature homeobox-containing gene, SHOX, encodes a homeodomain transcription factor responsible for a significant proportion of long-bone growth. Growth impairment is a common manifestation in SHOX deficient patients (SHOXD), with variable degrees of height disablement. The growth promoter treatment of SHOXD patients consists in the administration of recombinant human GH (rhGH). In Italy, the allowed formulation of rhGH (somatropine, Hum...

Introduction: Craniopharyngiomas (CP) are rare pediatric intracranial tumors (1.2-4%) with a peak of incidence between 5-14 years . We retrospectively reviewed data of 16 cases (M/F 4/12) diagnosed before 4 years of age (median follow up 7.2 years) from a cohort of 117 patients (pts) (M/F 56/41) diagnosed after 01/01/2000, followed-up in 14 Italian centres of pediatric endocrinology belonging to the Italian Society for Pediatric Endocrinology and Diabetolo...

Introduction: Peripubertal children with delayed puberty frequently display a poor growth rate prompting endocrine work-up. Whether priming with sex steroids should routinely be performed in these patients to improve specificity of growth hormone stimulation tests (GHST) is unclear. Treatment with sex steroids in constitutional delay of growth and puberty (CDGP) is also debated.Patients and Methods: This multicenter retr...

Introduction: The diagnosis of growth hormone deficiency (GHD) is currently based on clinical, auxological, biochemical, and neuro-radiological investigation. Provocative tests of GH secretion using physiological/pharmacological stimuli are required to confirm GHD. The clonidine test (CT) is widely used to assess GH secretory status. In this retrospective study we analyzed the reliability of CT and the effect of puberty in a large number of children with short stature who had ...

Background: The initial L-T4 dose currently recommended in the treatment of congenital hypothyroidism (CH) is 10–15 mcg/kg per day.Objective and hypotheses: We designed a multicenter randomized trial to evaluate the effects of different starting doses of L-T4 within the range 10–15 mcg/kg per day on neurocognitive development in children with CH.Method: Seventy-two children with CH diagnosed by neonatal screening were enr...

Background: Autoimmune diseases have a higher incidence and prevalence among the individuals with Down syndrome (DS) compared to chromosomally normal people (increased risk for thyroid, gut and islet autoimmunity, juvenile idiopathic arthritis) These findings provide insights into a very aggressive phenotypic expression of autoimmunity in DS children.Objective and hypotheses: To investigate for the 1st time whether the association with DS might per se mo...