ESPE Abstracts

Background: We previously reported in a national cohort, that adherence to subcutaneous Growth Hormone (GH) treatment in children is better with jet delivery compared with needle devices (Spoudeas et al. Patient Prefer Adherence. 2014;8:1255–1263). We also separately reported that adherent children showed significantly improved height outcomes at one year.Objective and hypotheses: To examine the potential influence of adherence and demograp...

Context: Craniopharyngiomas are rare, suprasellar tumours with excellent 5-year survival rates of 95%. Despite their benign histology, their tendency to invade vital nearby optic, hypothalamopituitary and vascular structures, complicates resection whilst potentially causing secondary life limiting morbidity, panhypopituitarism and premature mortality. Since 1997, conservative hypothalamic-sparing surgery and radiation to the residual tumour has replaced aggressive resection at...

Background: The BoneXpert method is an automated determination of bone age, which employs deformable models of each bone to locate the bones, and extracts the component of the bone appearance related to maturity in a holistic, statistical manner. The BoneXpert has been validated on normal children and children with diagnoses typical of pediatric endocrinology. Multiple clinical studies suggested that BoneXpert has adequate accuracy, precision, and efficiency to be clinically u...

Introduction: Of any pituitary dysfunction following brain injury, growth hormone (GH) deficiency (GHD) is the most prevalent. The cut-point for defining GHD has been placed at 7 ng/mL representing optimum test performance. We hypothesised this cut-off may be set too low for genetically taller children with acquired brain injury, notably brain tumours, who demonstrate severe growth failure but repeatedly fail to meet diagnostic thresholds for GH replacement until several centi...

Background: PanEuropean(SIOP) trials of treatment for childhood brain cancers (medulloblastomas/PNET) showed a 5% survival advantage with ‘sandwich’ gonadotoxic chemotherapy (CT) over surgical excision, neuraxial radiation and tumour boost (RT) alone. But this was tempered by a reduced quality of survival at 7 years.Objective: To assess the long term prevalence of subfertility after CT with/without neuraxial radiation.<p class="a...

Background: Mutations in the side chain cleavage enzyme, (CYP11A1) cause congenital adrenal insufficiency, with complete or partial 46XY sex reversal. The disorder manifests with adrenal and gonadal insufficiencies along with derangements of the renin/angiotensin system.Objective and hypotheses: To obtain a genetic diagnosis in six patients with adrenal insufficiency of unknown aetiology. Patients 1 and 2 are sisters with ACTH resistance, having...

Background: Childhood IGCT are rare, malignant tumours of the pituitary stalk and pineal region, highly curable (>90%) by multimodal therapies. Neuroendocrine outcomes are thus important. Deficits increase over time but, without longitudinal studies, it remains unclear whether they are primarily disease or treatment related.Objective and hypotheses: To determine, by longitudinal retrospective analysis in survivors, tumour- and treatment-related facto...

Background: Craniopharyngiomas are rare suprasellar tumours with good survival but high endocrine morbidity. The commonest endocrinopathy is GHd which can precede diagnosis. Later obesity (BMI >+2SDS) may be treatment or tumour related.Objective and hypotheses: To evaluate endocrinopathy, height, weight and BMI outcomes after a conservative surgical treatment strategy with pre-treatment pituitary provocation tests for children diagnosed between 2009 ...

Background: The HPAT multi-disciplinary meeting (MDT) was set up in 2011 with the aim to improve collaboration with other hospitals treating children with rare paediatric suprasellar brain tumours. It is a monthly remote meeting conducted virtually.Objective: To evaluate the impact of COVID19 pandemic by comparing the number of meetings, cases (news/previously discussed), diagnosis, attendees, specialties, centres and ou...

Introduction: Hypothalamic obesity (HyOb) is a rare form of treatment-resistant morbid obesity associated with congenital or acquired hypothalamic damage. Its pathophysiology is incompletely understood, with weight gain being attributed to hyperphagia and hyperinsulinaemia. We sought to compare the physiology of various plasma appetite-regulating hormones in HyOb and ‘simple’ obesity (Ob) to improve our understanding of both forms of obesity and identify novel therap...