ESPE Abstracts

Background: Published case reports and anecdotal experience suggest a positive effect of dexamphetamine, a CNS stimulant on impetus and weight in patients with hypothalamic obesity. Based on these observations, patients presenting to our obesity clinic with hypothalamic obesity are offered off-label treatment with dexamphetamine.Method: Between 2010 and 2015, patients starting dexamphetamine treatment were enrolled in a prospective observation study. A r...

Background: Simple clinical investigations to differ harmless premature thelarche (PT) from pubertal precocity and other pathological conditions are needed as PT is a common condition in girls under the age of 3–4 year.Objective and hypotheses: Since 17β-oestradiol (17β-E2) is the major driver of breast development, the hypothesis is, that it is possible to define an upper serum 17β-oestradiol (17β-E2) level for harmless PT in gi...

Background: The melanocortin-4-receptor (MC4R) plays a key role in body weight regulation. Hypothalamic activation of MC4R reduces food intake and increases energy expenditure. Mutations in the MC4R gene lead to the most common cause of monogenetic obesity. More than 150 different mutations are currently known. Their prevalence in obese subjects differs between 0.2 and 5.8%, depending on ethnicity, age and grade of obesity of the analysed cohort. Impact on phenotype a...

Background: Adult height prediction (AHP) based on bone age appears as an incomplete procedure – it does not reveal the path from the present to the end-point. Growth charts offer little help in this respect because they average over children with different age of growth spurt (AGS).Objective and hypotheses: To extend AHP by also forecasting AGS and the entire height and velocity trajectories until adulthood and displaying this in a growth chart mad...

Background: Severe GH deficiency (GHD) leads to several metabolic effects in the body ranging from abnormal body composition to biochemical disturbances such as high insulin sensitivity. However, less is known regarding these parameters in children with a milder deficiency in GH secretion.Objective and hypotheses: To analyse if short children with a relatively low GH secretion differ metabolically from healthy children of normal height.<p class="abst...

Background: IGF1 is the key effector peptide in the control of normal growth. IGF1 deficiency in the presence of normal GH is associated with growth failure. This may be caused by primary defects in the GH-IGF1 axis or by conditions such as malnutrition or chronic inflammation. Severe primary IGF1 deficiency (height <−3 S.D., serum IGF1 <2.5th centile, GH normal) is an European Medicines Agency (EMA) licensed indication for rhIGF1 therapy. We repor...

Background: It has been suggested that maternal prepregnancy overweight has an effect on childhood overweight.Objective: We aimed to use a survival analysis approach to investigate the association between maternal prepregnancy overweight and childhood overweight in the prospective Ulm Birth Cohort Study (UBCS).Design: At baseline n=1086 mothers and their newborns agreed to participate in the UBCS. Weight and height values ...

Bacterial infection of the thyroid gland (acute suppurative thyroiditis, AST) is a very rare condition, particularly in children, as the thyroid gland is extremely resistant to infection. AST presents with painful tender mass in the anterior neck and is usually associated with fever, sore throat, dysphagia and limitation of the neck movements. In the most cases the left globe is affected. Common laboratory findings are leukocytosis, elevated erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR...

Introduction: Disorders of sex development (DSD) refer to a group of conditions, including Turner syndrome in which an individual's physical sex characteristics do not conform to typical male or female patterns, including a range of differences in chromosomes, hormones and anatomy. Gender-specific problems are usually not prominent, compared to other forms of DSD. Gender dysphoria (GD) is a discomfort between a person’s assigned sex based on physica...

Background: Hormone replacement in congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH) due to 21-hydroxylase deficiency (21-OHD) aims at mimicking the physiologic secretion patterns of cortisol and aldosterone. However, available glucocorticoid preparations do not allow to achieve an adequate cortisol peak during the early morning hours, a milder peak during the evening, and low cortisol serum levels at night. As a consequence, intermittent ACTH hypersecretion may induce the...