ESPE Abstracts

Background: At a population level, increasing age/sex corrected BMI Z-score (BMI-Z) is associated with increased risk of complications. It is unclear whether severity of obesity is a good predictor of comorbidities within groups of obese children. This knowledge is required to inform clinical management and pathways of care.Objective and hypotheses: In obese youth, to identify whether 1 increasing BMI-Z+/− waist/height ratio(WHtR) is associated wit...

Background: Adults have a weight that is normal for them. This is referred to as their ‘set-point’ for weight. Studies have shown physiological protection of this set-point, explaining why most obese adults who diet eventually regain weight.Objective and hypotheses: We hypothesised that set-points for weight, and their physiological defence, are flexible in childhood but become fixed sometime around puberty. We aimed to show that obese children...

Background: Emerging evidence suggests FTO polymorphisms are associated with obesity-related comorbidities including type 2 diabetes (T2DM), hypertension and polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS). However association of FTO with other comorbidities such as obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA) in paediatric populations is less clear.Objective and hypotheses: To investigate the prevalence of obesity-related comorbidities according to FTO genotype in an obese paedia...

Sex is one of the strongest biological factors influencing neural development, and yet our understanding of the molecular underpinnings of sexual differentiation is only just beginning. Just like the bipotential gonads, which only differentiate upon expression of SRY in XY males, the brain is also bipotential and differentiates due to a combination of genetic, epigenetic, environmental, and hormonal exposures. A period of testosterone production by the testes, which occurs as ...

Background: Jansen’s Metaphyseal Chondrodysplasia is a rare autosomal dominant condition caused by activating mutations in the parathyroid hormone/parathyroid hormone related peptide receptor (PTH1R). It is associated with persistent PTH-independent hypercalcemia and hypercalciuria from an early age. Our patient, a 2 year old boy with genetically proven Jansen’s Metaphyseal Chondrodysplasia, developed bilateral medullary nephrocalcinosis secondary to persistent hyper...

Background: Glucocorticoid (GC) therapy is standard of care of management of Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD) but its use is associated with a range of side-effects. Weight gain leading to significant obesity is common in GC treated boys. There are limited studies evaluating body composition in DMD following initiation of GC, and the timing of increase in fat mass is not known.Aim(s): To evaluate changes in growth param...

Background: Mitchell Riley syndrome is a rare syndrome caused by mutations in the RFX6 gene, resulting in neonatal diabetes, intestinal atresia, pancreatic abnormalities, and biliary hypoplasia. RFX6 is a winged helix transcription factor that is expressed in the developing pancreas and in the gut endoderm. Previous eight case reports highlight poor outcomes with usually a fatal course in infancy.Case presentation: Twin 2 of a dichorion...

Background: Congenital Hyperinsulinism (CHI) is the most frequent cause of severe, persistent hypoglycemia in children. Persistent hypoglycemia places patients at risk for adverse clinical outcomes, and current guidelines recommend maintaining plasma glucose >3.9mmol/l. CHI patients often have substantial, residual hypoglycemia and fail to meet treatment goals with currently available standard of care (SOC) therapies. In this study, we aimed to characterize...

Congenital hyperinsulinism (CHI) is an ultra-rare disease characterized by excessive insulin secretion that results in persistent hypoglycemia. If left untreated, CHI-induced severe prolonged hypoglycemia may lead to permanent neurologic damage. Currently used pharmacologic agents fail to prevent hypoglycemia in a subset of patients with CHI. HM15136 is a novel long-acting glucagon analogue that have demonstrated good stability and extended half-life ranging from 77 to 167 hou...

Introduction: Achondroplasia is the most common skeletal dysplasia, in which the main clinical feature is short stature. Vosoritide, the first specific treatment for achondroplasia; administered as a daily subcutaneous injection, was approved by the European Medicines Agency in August 2021 for patients aged ≥2 years until closure of epiphyses. French Health Authorities granted early access to vosoritide treatment in France on 24 June 2021, which continued u...