ESPE Abstracts

Background: Precocious puberty (PP) in girls is most frequently an idiopathic gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH)-dependent PP, being thelarche the typical first sign. It is well established that increased dehydroepiandrosterone sulphate (DHEAS) levels are associated with premature adrenarche and may characterize PP too. However, its relationship with signs of hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal (HPG) axis activation and estrogen exposure is still to be elucidate...

Introduction: Children born small for gestational age (SGA) represent a heterogeneous population, displaying different phenotypes for both growth and metabolic status. Low birth length and/or weight increases the risks for not only growth impairment but also for metabolic derangements (cardiovascular disease, hypertension and type 2 diabetes), the latter with an even amplified risk in children with rapid postnatal weight gain. Variability in metabolic paramete...

Background: Neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1) is an autosomal-dominant disorder affecting 1:3000 individuals. Endocrine comorbidities have been reported in 1%-3% of all NF1 patients. In children, central precocious puberty (CPP) is the most frequent endocrinopathy (3%). Other endocrinological problems associated with this condition are short stature, growth hormone (GH) deficiency/excess, calcium-phosphate metabolism derangement and decreased bone mineral density...

Introduction: Central precocious puberty is characterized by early activation of pituitary-gonadal axis, often associated with high levels of insulin-like growth factor-I (IGF-I), together with accelerated growth and bone maturation, which can ultimately lead to a low adult height (HT). Treatment with GnRH-agonists (GnRHa) can help reducing growth acceleration and rate of bone maturation, though not always restoring prepubertal growth velocity. The causes of d...

Introduction: Familial non-autoimmune autosomal dominant hyperthyroidism (FNAH) is a rare cause of childhood hyperthyroidism caused by an activating variant of the thyroid stimulating hormone receptor (TSHR) gene. This disorder may occur as a result of an autosomal dominant inheritance or sporadically through de novo variation. The severity of hyperthyroid symptoms is variable and phenotype differences have been described in subjects harbouring the same mutati...

Background: Severe congenital growth hormone deficiency (cGHD) is a rare but potentially life-threatening condition. Even though random growth hormone (GH) can confirm cGHD during the first week of life, the diagnosis remains extremely challenging in the absence of reliable reference values in healthy neonates and thus of a best diagnostic cut-off.Aims: First, to provide solid reference values for GH concentrations in te...

Background and aim: Congenital growth hormone deficiency (cGHD) is a rare but life-threatening condition whose diagnosis is challenging in the absence of reliable reference values, both in healthy neonates and in preterm ones. We recently estimated GH reference interval in 1036 healthy, at-term newborns (HN) form dried blood spot samples using a previously validated analytical method.Aim: of this study is to provide valu...