ESPE Abstracts

Introduction: Children born small for gestational age (SGA) represent a heterogeneous population, displaying different phenotypes for both growth and metabolic status. Low birth length and/or weight increases the risks for not only growth impairment but also for metabolic derangements (cardiovascular disease, hypertension and type 2 diabetes), the latter with an even amplified risk in children with rapid postnatal weight gain. Variability in metabolic paramete...

Background: Neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1) is an autosomal-dominant disorder affecting 1:3000 individuals. Endocrine comorbidities have been reported in 1%-3% of all NF1 patients. In children, central precocious puberty (CPP) is the most frequent endocrinopathy (3%). Other endocrinological problems associated with this condition are short stature, growth hormone (GH) deficiency/excess, calcium-phosphate metabolism derangement and decreased bone mineral density...

Introduction: Central precocious puberty is characterized by early activation of pituitary-gonadal axis, often associated with high levels of insulin-like growth factor-I (IGF-I), together with accelerated growth and bone maturation, which can ultimately lead to a low adult height (HT). Treatment with GnRH-agonists (GnRHa) can help reducing growth acceleration and rate of bone maturation, though not always restoring prepubertal growth velocity. The causes of d...

Background and aim: Congenital growth hormone deficiency (cGHD) is a rare but life-threatening condition whose diagnosis is challenging in the absence of reliable reference values, both in healthy neonates and in preterm ones. We recently estimated GH reference interval in 1036 healthy, at-term newborns (HN) form dried blood spot samples using a previously validated analytical method.Aim: of this study is to provide valu...