ESPE Abstracts

Introduction: Primary empty sella syndrome (ES) is rare in children. Reports relating it with various endocrine manifestations have been published. Asymptomatic cases have also been reported, this questions the existence of causal relationship.Objective: To analyze causal relationship between primary ES and endocrine manifestations in 15 pediatric cases seen in our clinics, and suggest patients follow-up.Population and methods: Ret...

Introduction: Of any pituitary dysfunction following brain injury, growth hormone (GH) deficiency (GHD) is the most prevalent. The cut-point for defining GHD has been placed at 7 ng/mL representing optimum test performance. We hypothesised this cut-off may be set too low for genetically taller children with acquired brain injury, notably brain tumours, who demonstrate severe growth failure but repeatedly fail to meet diagnostic thresholds for GH replacement until several centi...

Introduction: Hydrocortisone (HC) has a short half-life and individualization of treatment is required for optimal treatment of CAH, balancing between under- and overtreatment. Twenty four hour profiling of HC concentrations has shown large interindividual variation in clearance of HC and therefore has been used to individualize treatment. We present a severely virialized girl with CAH, in whom high doses of steroids failed to suppress androgen production thou...

Background: Patients with congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH) are glucocorticoid deficient and require cortisol replacement to maintain homeostasis and prevent adrenal crises. Hydrocortisone dosing needs to be individualized because of variable cortisol clearance rates. Patients are thus prone to be either over or undertreated, both of which compromises final height.Objective and hypotheses: Performing 24-h cortisol profiling serially may allow for more...

Background: Oxidative stress has been implicated in the development and progression of complications in type 1 diabetes (T1DM). Vitamin E (α-tocopherol) undergoes β-oxidation of its chomanol ring and the resulting metabolite α-TLHQ has been proposed as a potential biomarker of oxidative stress. HbA1c relates in T1DM to microvascular complications predominantly although the end-points are late in disease development. The oxidative stress process may act independe...

Introduction: Pituitary imaging is important for the evaluation of hypothalamo-pituitary axis defects in patients diagnosed with childhood-onset growth hormone deficiency (CO-GHD). Published evidence shows that there is a close relationship between structural changes in the pituitary gland and growth hormone deficiency.Aim: To evaluate the relationship between clinical, laboratory and magnetic resonance imaging of the pi...

Background: Adrenal cortical carcinoma (ACC) in children is rare and aggressive, with the mainstay of treatment being surgical resection, although there have been recent improvements in outcomes with chemotherapy. Further characterisation of the presenting features and biochemical markers are needed to support earlier diagnosis. Refractory hypertension related to high cortisol concentrations prior to surgery, and post-operative decrease in cortisol can be chal...

Background: Thymus transplantation is undertaken for conditions associated with severe immunodeficiency. These comprise a number of genetic and syndromic associations including 22q deletion syndrome, CHARGE association, diabetic embryopathy, and other rarer conditions. Autoimmune thyroid dysfunctions (Hashimoto's thyroiditis and Graves' Disease) are described in the literature as the most common autoimmune disease after thymic transplant.<p class="...

Background: Thymus transplantation is undertaken for conditions associated with severe immunodeficiency. These comprise a number of genetic and syndromic associations including 22q deletion syndrome, CHARGE association, diabetic embryopathy, and other rarer conditions. These conditions may also be associated with hypoparathyroidism and patients are therefore at risk of severe hypocalcaemia. There are no published guidelines for calcium replacement in these patients during the ...

Background: While GH therapy forms the mainstay of growth promoting treatment for Turner syndrome (TS), adjunctive use of oxandrolone and optimal timing of pubertal induction remain controversial. The previously published interim analysis of this randomised double-blind placebo-controlled trial demonstrated that oxandrolone and pubertal induction at 14y vs 12y significantly increased final height. However, these effects were not additive.Objective: To up...