ESPE Abstracts

Objective: To provide etiology-based diagnostics to pediatric patients with diabetes in Belgium using routine clinical phenotyping and thorough genotyping.Methods: A Belgian GENEPEDIAB study consortium was created to screen, using routine diagnostic tools, for monogenic forms of diabetes in pediatric patients followed in convention centers for type 1 or type 2 diabetes, while presenting atypical biological and clinical f...

Diabetes mellitus is a chronic disease. The risk of microvascular complications is correlated with hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) level [1] Educating the diabetic patient to keep an HbA1c below 7% reduce the risk of long-term complications. We report the case of a 15 years old teenager, with chronical headache, referred for diabetes mellitus with a fasting glycemia of 83 mg/dl (normal < 100) and an HbA1C of 8.3% using an Ion-exchange High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC, Ad...

Background: CHARGE syndrome is a variable entity. Clinical diagnosis is based on the Blake-Verloes criteria and can be confirmed by identifying a mutation in CHD7. Hypoplasia of the genitalia is a common feature and is most often attributable to hypogonadotropic hypogonadism which is described in 81% of the males and 93% of the female patients. Other genital anomalies are rare. Combined agenesis of the uterus and ovaries is so far only reported in one patient with sus...

Background: Children with biallelic GHRHR gene pathogenic variants share a phenotype of growth failure starting in infancy and resulting in a proportionate short stature and bone age delay due to a complete isolated growth hormone (GH) deficiency. The genotype ranges from rare promotor mutations to the more frequent splicing mutations, some genotypes being specific to certain geographic areas. Diagnosis is mainly made around the age of 7 years and more often i...

Background and Aim: A substantial proportion of SGA patients have a syndrome underlying their growth restriction. Most SGA cohorts comprise both syndromic (S-SGA) and non-syndromic patients (nonS-SGA) impeding delineation of the recombinant human growth hormone (rhGH) response. We present a detailed characterization of the Belgian SGA cohort and analyze rhGH response based on adult height (AH).Patients & Methods: Cli...

Background: The potential benefit of growth hormone (GH) therapy on health-related QOL (HQoL) of children with short stature related to GH deficiency (GHD) or smallness for gestational age (SGA) has not been well documented.Objective and hypotheses: Our objective was to assess potential disease and treatment related predictors for a poor HQoL in GH treated children. Children with male gender, SGA disorder, greater height deficit at start of GH and poor h...

Background: Bilateral testicular regression (BTR) is characterized by the absence of both testicles in a newborn male or shortly thereafter, and presenting as bilateral cryptorchidism with undetectable AMH levels and the absence of Müllerian structures on pelvic ultrasound. Depending on when the regression occurs during fetal development, the condition can be associated with a micropenis. Few studies have explored the etiology and long-term outcome of BTR...

Background/ Aim: Over the past 6 years, the IGF1/ IGFBP3 generation test (IGFGT) has been used in Belgium in a standardized form to identify children with severe primary IGF1 deficiency (SPIGFD). In this study, the discordance of the IGF1 and IGFBP3 responses during an IGFGT and the prevalence of SPIGFD were analyzed in a cohort of children with short stature (height SDS < - 2) and presenting with low (below lower reference limit) serum IGF1 level and norma...

Background: Long-term outcome studies on bilateral testicular regression (BTR) are currently lacking, hampering counseling of patients and parents. Although a vascular origin was initially reported, recent studies revealed a genetic origin in a subset of patients (i.e. DHX37 gene variants). How this relates to patient outcomes remains unclear.Methods: Thirty-five patients with BTR were recruited in eight Belgian centers ...

Background: Since the initial clinical description of Turner Syndrome (TS), there have been notable changes in the genotypic and phenotypic presentation of the disease. Our aimis to provide an overview of the current genetic and clinical characteristics of a large Belgian cohort of girls with TS, and the evolution over the last 3 decades.Methods: We therefore analyzed the genetic and clinical data of growth hormone(GH)-t...