ESPE Abstracts

Background: Male preterm infants are at increased risk of neonatal mortality when compared to their female counterparts. The mechanisms explaining this male disadvantage are not fully elucidated yet.Objective and hypotheses: To compare glucocorticoid metabolite excretion in urine obtained at day 10 between male and female infants born with a very low birth weight (VLBW; i.e. <1500 g). We hypothesized that male preterm infants have impaired adrenocort...

Background: Sertoli-Leydig Cell Tumors (SLCT) account only for 1% of all ovarian neoplasia, occur more commonly in the second or third decade of life and seldom secrete tumor markers. The experience in adolescence is limited.Objective and hypothesis: To report the hormonal and biological profile of a SCLT in a young adolescent. Ovarian tumor markers as well as FDG-PET scanning might be helpful in diagnosing ovarian malignancy in case of normal ultrasound...

Background: Current guidelines suggest to test obese subjects with impaired fasting glucose (IFG) by oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) for the presence of type 2 diabetes. This strategy, however, misses most cases of impaired glucose tolerance (IGT).Objective and hypotheses: To investigate whether combining risk factors improves predictability of IGT in OGTT.Method: In this observational study of 145 overweight children, aged 2.5&...

Introduction: Non-communicable diseases are recognized as a major cause of morbidity in low and middle-income countries (LMICs). There are 21 francophone countries (>100 million speak French) in Sub-Saharan Africa (FSSA). We identified only 19 pediatric endocrinologists in FSSA (37% in Cameroon and Senegal) mostly trained in France or through the successful anglophone “Paediatric Endocrine Training Centers for (West) Africa” (PETC[W]A) offered i...

Introduction: Ghrelin binds to its receptor GHSR1A, encoded by GHSR, on somatotrophs of the pituitary. Growth hormone (GH) secretion is enhanced by ghrelin binding as well as the receptor’s constitutive activity. Results from in vitro experiments, knock-out mice, and GWAS suggest that heterozygous loss-of-function of GHSR may be associated with short stature, but observations in case studies are equivocal. We aimed to better ch...

Introduction: Children with hypothalamic dysfunction, e.g. due to a genetic or acquired cause such as suprasellar tumours, often suffer from hyperphagia and/or decreased resting energy expenditure (REE). This process induces uncontrollable weight gain, resulting in severe hypothalamic obesity (HO). No effective treatment is available yet for HO. Amphetamines are psychostimulants that are known for their appetite reducing and REE stimulating side effects. Here,...

Background: Measurement of testicular volume is important when conditions associated with a delay or advance in the onset of puberty, or micro- and macroorchidism, are suspected. Measured testicular volumes must be compared with reference data, preferably expressed in S.D. curves using the LMS method, as is routinely done for many auxological measurements in pediatrics. The current study therefore aimed to construct LMS-smoothed age-reference charts for testicul...

Background: Paediatric obesity is a multifactorial disease characterized by an imbalance between energy intake and expenditure. In rare cases, obesity is caused by underlying medical disorders arising from disruptions in the leptin-melanocortin pathway, which regulates satiety and energy expenditure.Aim: To investigate resting energy expenditure (REE) in relation to body composition in children and adolescents with sever...

Background: Heterozygous pathogenic variants in the ACAN gene underlie disproportionate short stature with characteristically accelerated bone age (BA) maturation and/or osteochondritis dissecans (OD)/early-onset osteoarthritis (OA).Objective: To describe the phenotypic spectrum and assess the response and safety of growth hormone (GH) treatment in children with a heterozygous pathogenic ACAN variant.</...

Background: Melanocortin4-receptor (MC4R) deficiency is the most common cause of monogenetic obesity. Other forms of genetic obesity, like 16p11.2 deletion syndrome, are associated with increased head circumference (HC). Little is known about HC in patients with MC4R deficiency.Methods: This study included patients with homozygous or heterozygous, pathogenic or likely pathogenic ACMG class 4 or 5 MC4R variants. Pediatric...