ESPE Abstracts

Background: The first Long-Acting Growth Hormone (LAGH) therapy, Somatrogon, has been available in Italy since March 2023 for children with growth hormone deficiency (GHD) older than 3 years, offering a convenient way of administering the treatment once weekly instead of once daily. Clinical trials have demonstrated the efficacy and safety of LAGH treatment in children with GHD. We aim ed to evaluate the real-world experience of using Somatrogon at a tertiary ...

Background: It has been previously proposed that not all children with short stature displaying an inadequate response to tests for growth hormone (GH) secretion truly suffer from GH deficiency (GHD). Instead, amongst these, solely children with an identifiable monogenic cause of GHD or an identifiable functional or anatomical anomaly in the hypothalamic-pituitary axis should be considered GHD. The remaining patients should be defined as affected by “sho...

Background: ‘Thelarche variant’ (TV), also known as ‘unsustained/slowly progressive puberty’ or ‘exaggerated thelarche’, is a term used to describe girls with premature thelarche and intermediate features between isolated premature thelarche (PT) and central precocious puberty (CPP). Despite being characterized by a FSH predominant response and by a peak LH response <5 IU/L to GnRH test, a univocal definition is lacking.<...

Objective: To understand whether characterization into definite growth hormone deficiency (dGHD; peak GH <8 ug/L and identifiable genetic, functional or anatomical cause), short stature unresponsive to stimulation test (SUS; peak GH <8 ug/L but without any identifiable cause) or idiopathic short stature (ISS; peak GH ≥8) can predict the near adult height (NAH) of prepubertal children treated with recombinant human growth hormone (rhGH).<p class="a...

Background: In 2003 recombinant human growth hormone (rhGH) was approved by European Medicines Agency to treat short children born small for gestational age (SGA), but so far no study evaluated the prevalence of SGA children with short stature who qualify for rhGH treatment in Europe.Objectives: To investigate the prevalence of SGA and short stature in children born SGA and of SGA children who qualify for rhGH treatment ...

Background: DHEAS is the most abundant adrenal steroid and it is also a neurosteroid, produced at the cerebral level from pregnenolone and 17OH-pregnenolone. It antagonizes the effects of cortisol at the level of glucocorticoid receptors, modulating biological energy output, inflammatory status, action of other steroidal hormones, and different brain functions, hypothalamus being rich in corticosteroid receptors. DHEAS secretion is usually synchronized with co...