ESPE Abstracts

Introduction: Precocious puberty (PP) is defined as the appearance of thelarche before the age of 8 years, in girls. The gold standard for the diagnosis is represented by the increase of LH level after stimulation with native GnRH, but a feasible alternative involves the administration of GnRH analogues. This test is poorly standardised and currently literature lacks of defined values to confirm the activation of the hypothalamic-gonadal axis, since they depen...

Background: Preterm infants born VLBW can display auxological impairment and long term cognitive disabilities. These outcomes are influenced by the condition of being small for gestational age (SGA), but also by the extra-uterine growth restriction (EUGR). Aim of the study was to detect the influence of gestational age(GA), perinatal growth trend and enteral nutrition during the hospitalization on cognitive and auxological outcomes at peri-pubertal age (PPA).<...

Introduction: Limitations of the available imaging technique led the introduction of a new quantitative approach ultrasound-based for assessment of bone tissue in pediatric subjects. This new methodology use data from unfiltered radio frequency signals, collected during ultrasonographic acquisition of bone district of interest to estimate the bone mineral density. Advantages of this new technique include absence of radiation exposure, low cost of management an...

Background: Extra Uterine Growth Restriction (EUGR) represents a serious comorbidity in infants born very low birth weight (VLBW). In fact, failure in postnatal growth and malnutrition at vulnerable ages can interfere with growth recovery and neurodevelopment at older ages.Hypothesis: Aim of the study was to assess whether and how the postnatal early growth patterns of VLBW may affect later growth, spontaneous motility a...

Background: Congenital Hypothyroidism (CH) is the most common neonatal endocrinologic disorder and one of the most preventable causes of mental retardation and neurological alterations in children. The incidence of CH lies between 1 in 2000-3000 newborns. The replacement therapy with levothyroxine (LT4) should be started immediately since studies show that a rapid normalization of TSH and fT4 optimizes the neurodevelopmental outcome. Infants with Down syndrome...