ESPE Abstracts

Background: The etiology of short stature is heterogeneous, often encompassing complex genetic disorders of difficult diagnosis. Analysis of chromosomic copy number variants (CNVs) has been demonstrating the important role of these genomic imbalances in population diversity and human disease.Objective and hypotheses: To analyze the frequency and describe novel submicroscopic chromosomal CNVs in a group of patients with short stature of unknown cause....

Background: Noonan syndrome (NS) is a rare genetic disease characterized by facial dysmorphism, short stature, heart defects, chest deformities, and variable developmental delay/learning disabilities. Almost 80% of patients have a mutation in the genes encoding components of the RAS/MAPK pathway. Puberty was described as delayed in NS patients, but few studies are focusing on this subject and genotype-phenotype correlations so far.<s...

Background: Noonan syndrome (NS) is a frequent autosomal dominant disorder characterized by facial dysmorphisms, heart defects, short stature and learning disabilities. It is caused by mutations in genes within the RAS/MAPK signaling pathway, thus called RASopathies. The RAS/MAPK pathway can also impact the signal transduction of hormones involved in body weight, carbohydrate, and lipid metabolism features scarcely studied only in animal models. This study aimed to describe me...

Background: The majority of children with short stature are classified as idiopathic short stature. Whole exome sequencing can help identify genetic causes of short stature.Methods: We recruited 10 children with short stature of unknown etiology. We conducted whole exome sequencing of the patients and their family members. We used an analysis pipeline to identify rare nonsynonymous genetic variants that might cause the short stature. All rare allelic var...

Background: Patients born small for gestational age (SGA) with additional syndromic features to short stature are likely to present with genetic causes.Aim: To perform a clinical and genetic-molecular investigation of a group of syndromic SGA patients without catch-up growth.Methods: We selected 118 patients born SGA [birth weight and/or length standard deviation score (SDS) ≤−2 for gestational age] without catch-up gro...

Introduction: Extrauterine growth retardation is a common characteristic among children born at very low birth weight (VLBW). Over time, recombinant human growth hormone (rhGH) has been used in this group based on indications for children born small for gestational age (SGA). However, this group represents an extreme phenotype to the majority of children born SGA, and data on the outcomes of this therapy in this group are limited.<strong...