ESPE Abstracts

Adeno-associated virus (AAV) gene therapy reached the maturity and a liver-targeting approach is currently used as a replacement treatment for rare hepatic and muscular diseases. X-linked hypophosphatemia (XLH) is a rare disease associated with hyperfunction of fibroblast growth factor 23 (FGF23) in bone and characterized by severe skeletal deformities and short stature. The current medical therapies for XLH requires life-long repeated treatment presenting major limitatio...

McCune Albright Syndrome (MAS, OMIM # 174800) is a rare congenital sporadic disorder with an estimated prevalence ranging from 1 in 1,00,000 to 1 in 100,000. MAS is caused by a post-zygotic somatic activating mutation of the GNAS1 gene resulting in an increased GSα protein signaling leading to hyperfunction of glycoprotein hormone receptors, autonomous cell proliferation, and hormonal hypersecretion. The mosaic constitutive activation of this signal transducer is clinical...

Background: Cardiovascular diseases are the leading cause of premature death among women with Turner syndrome (TS). Studies in youth with TS suggest that cardiometabolic-related dysfunction is present in childhood, however these small convenience samples may not be generalizable to the whole TS population. PEDSnet, the largest pediatric Health Learning System in the United States (US) representing >6 million children, offers a unique opportunity to examine ...

Background: Pain represents one of the most stressful experiences for children undergoing medical therapies (Kortesluoma, 2008), but is under represented in literature for what concerns pediatric endocrinology. Children consider Injections one of the most painful, frighteningand distressing procedures (Fassler, 1985). The treatment for patients with Growth Hormone Deficiency requires daily subcutaneous injection, performed by parents or patients themselves. Th...

Background: Neonatal hypocalcemia is a common disorder, occurring more often in premature, low birth weight and asphyxiated infants, as in infants born to mothers with diabetes. Nevertheless its aetiology is heterogeneous ranging from iatrogenic, idiopathic and inherited metabolic abnormalities. Among these, Autosomal Dominant Hypocalcemia (ADH) is a rare syndrome characterized by the presence of inappropriately low concentration of circulating parathyroid hor...

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has had wide effects on child health globally. Increased prevalence of childhood obesity has been observed during the pandemic. The absence of a formal societal lockdown during the pandemic, made Sweden stand out compared to other countries. Several studies have shown increases in obesity in children during the COVID-19 pandemic. These studies mainly focused on school age children and adolescents in countries that underwent pe...

Background: Preterm newborns (PN) are at risk of developing congenital hypothyroidism (CH) with a high reported incidence (1:300 vs 1:2000 for at term newborns). The study's objective was to determine the TSH percentiles at neonatal screening (NS) in PN and to analyze the incidence of permanent and transient CH in this population.Materials and Methods: PN born in the Piedmont Region of Italy in the period 2019-2021 ...

Bone fragility is a more typical condition of old age, linked to physiological aging. In pediatric age, on the contrary, it represents a rare problem, but more often has an underlying primary cause. This condition manifests itself in most cases with recurrent or abnormal fractures and bone deformities, with a limitation of mobility, bone pain and consequent reduction in the quality of life of the child. The great difficulty for the clinician consists in reaching a correct diag...

Background: Hypoparathyroidism is characterized by absence or inadequately low circulating concentrations of parathyroid hormone, resulting in hypocalcaemia, hyperphosphataemia and elevated fractional excretion of calcium in the urine. The use of activated vitamin D analogues and calcium supplements are recommended as the primary therapy. To avoid vitamin D and calcium side effects, subcutaneous recombinant human parathormone [rhPTH (1-34)] has been proposed f...

Introduction: Developed countries have shown, among the 20th century, a time trend towards a younger age at menarche. Tanner described an anticipation of 3 months every decade. In the last two decades of twenty century we have observed an apparent stabilization of menarche age in most of Western countries.Objective: analyze average age of menarche in Tuscany girls and compare our results with those in literatu...