ESPE Abstracts

Background: Aortic dilation (AD) occurs in Turner syndrome (TS) increasing the risk of aortic dissection at all ages. There are no current guidelines on what specific aortic diameter measurement should provoke concern in pediatric TS. Because of their small stature, an aortic size index (ASI) has been proposed to normalize the ascending aorta (AA) to body size in young adults’ with TS. However, a more reliable index has been also proposed: the ratio of vascular diameter t...

Introduction: Prader Willi Syndrome (PWS) is a genetic disorder caused by the lack of expression of paternally inherited genes in chromosome 15q11-q13 region. Central adrenal insufficiency (CAI) has been described but its prevalence is unknown.Aim: to assess central adrenal function in a group of prepuberal PWS patients suspected of CAI.Methods: PWS patients with confirmed molecula...

Introduction: The low-dose synacthen test (LDT) is widely used to assess central adrenal insufficiency (CAI); however, the total serum cortisol (C) cut-off value is controversial. A correct diagnosis of CAI is required, but overdiagnosis may lead to unnecessary hormone replacement therapy. Salivary cortisol (SC) reflects the levels of free serum cortisol and is a noninvasive alternative.Objective: To define a new cut-off value of serum cortisol in pediat...

Introduction: ABCD syndrome is characterized by hypercalcemia, hypercalciuria, nephrocalcinosis, and renal impairment, generally under 4 years old. This is a rare cause of pediatric hypercalcemia with only 7 cases published, but it is believed to be underdiagnosed. The suspected mechanism would be associated with overexpression of transient receptor potential channels (TRP) that modulate intestinal absorption of calcium, since TRP-M2 is encoded on chromosome 2...

Introduction: BIPSS before and after desmopressin stimulation has been shown to be a useful tool for diagnosis of ACTH-dependent CD and negative magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)or positive MRI but inconsistent biochemical data, in adult patients. However, little is known about its usefulness in pediatric population.Objective: To evaluate the prevalence of negative MRI, the sensitivity of BIPSS before and after desmopress...

Background: During the 1st months of postnatal life serum luteinizing hormone (LH) levels in girls are lower than in boys. The mechanism of this sex difference is not known. It has been proposed that foetal or perinatal androgenic steroids have an effect on the control of LH secretion.Objective and hypotheses: To study the possible influence of high levels of androgens on serum gonadotropins during the 1st months of life in a cohort of nine 46,XX testicu...

Background: Humanin is a novel signaling peptide which has been showed, by in vitro and in vivo studies, to improve insulin sensitivity. As plasma humanin levels decrease during adulthood, particularly during aging, it has been proposed that the increment of insulin resistance in aging might be associated with lesser humanin plasma values.Objective and hypotheses: The physiological insulin resistance observed during puberty in normal ch...

Background: In children, papillary thyroid cancer (PTC) is generally sporadic and may, less frequently, be part of an undiagnosed hereditary tumor predisposition syndrome (HTPS). Somatic molecular testing is useful to understand tumor etiology and behavior, predict prognosis, and possibly guide development of novel treatment strategies. RET/PTC fusions were found to be associated with an increased risk of invasive disease. The aims of our study were to analyze...

Disorders of sex development (DSD) are those congenital conditions in which development of chromosomal, gonadal, or anatomical sex is atypical. The aim of this study was to characterize the histology of 46,XX DSD prepubertal gonads. We studied 25 gonads of fourteen 46,XX DSD patients. The age of biopsy/gonadectomy was 1.17 (0.08–4.17) years (median and range). Molecular studies confirmed the absence of SRY by PCR and/or MLPA in blood samples of all patients and i...

Background: Carriers of germline DICER1 mutations are predisposed to a rare cancer syndrome, the DICER1 syndrome, associated with tumors such as pleuropulmonary blastoma (PPB), ovarian Sertoli-Leydig cell tumors (SLCT), multinodular goiter (MNG), cystic nephroma (CN), embryonal rhabdomyosarcoma (ERMS) or primitive neuroectodermic tumor. DICER1 is involved in the generation of microRNAs (miRNAs), short, double-stranded, non-coding RNAs that modulate gene expression at ...