ESPE Abstracts

Background/Aims: Length and weight of all children in Flanders are monitored every three years at school from the age of 3 years. The current criteria used for referral to specialized care are: height SDS < -2.5, height SDS between -2 and -2.5 SDS with a height SDS adjusted for parental height < -1.64, or a decrease in height SDS of more than 1 SDS in the past 3 years. The aim of this study is to investigate the sensitivity of the Flemish referral criter...

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 and Aim: Recombinant growth hormone (GH) is reimbursed for the treatment of short stature (<-2.5 Z-score) in children born small for gestational age (SGA) without postnatal growth, aged ≥ 4 years with a height Z-score >1 below mid-parental height (MPH). We wanted to determine the current GH prescribing practices by pediatric endocrinologists (PE) for SGA related short stature and document the percentages of treated children at risk for...

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...