ESPE Abstracts

Context: Severe forms of growth hormone insensitivity (GHI) are characterised by extreme short stature, dysmorphism and metabolic anomalies. They are classically caused by homozygous or compound heterozygous mutations of the growth hormone receptor gene (GHR). Genetic analysis traditionally focuses on the exonic regions of genes that encode proteins rather than the intervening non-coding sequences. These seldom explored non-coding regions may harbour ...

Background: Congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH) is an autosomal recessive condition which leads to glucocorticoid deficiency. During childhood, the main aims of treatment are to prevent adrenal crisis and to achieve normal stature, optimal adult height and to undergo normal puberty. In adults, the aims of treatment are to prevent adrenal crisis, ensure normal fertility and to avoid long-term consequences of glucocorticoid use. Current treatment regimens for CAH with glucocort...

Background: Severe primary deficiency of insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGFD) being characterized by growth failure and short stature in children, constitutes an indication to recombinant human IGF-1 (mecasermin) treatment. It is defined by serum insulin-like-growth factor-1 (IGF-1) levels less than or equal to 2.5 th percentile, height less than or equal to −3 S.D.S., normal growth hormone (GH) secretion and exlusion of secondary causes of IGFD.<p clas...

Introduction: Kisspeptin stimulates the gonadotropin releasing hormone (GnRH) neurons in hypothalamus initiating puberty. However, it is not known whether GnRH inhibits kisspeptin secretion by negative feedback and whether there are any associations between circulating levels of kisspeptin and other hormones, like ghrelin, important for the onset of puberty.Methods: Thirteen girls with suspected central precocious pubert...

Background: Papillary thyroid cancer has been described in three patients with Turner syndrome (TS) who received growth hormone therapy (Cabanas P, 2005; Bautembach-Minkowska J, 2018). We are presenting a case of papillary thyroid cancer in a girl with a late-diagnosed Turner syndrome who has not received any hormonal therapy up to 17 years.Clinical case: A girl was diagnosed with TS syndrome (karyotype 45XO/46X i(X)q) a...

Aim: To study the incidence of childhood thyrotoxicosis in five counties in central Sweden during 1990–2009 and to study the treatment outcome.Methods: Children below the age of 16 years diagnosed with thyrotoxicosis during the 20-years period and living in the study area were identified retrospectively. Data on the total number of children below 16 years of age living in the area during the study period was collected from the National Board of Stat...

Introduction: Delayed puberty is defined as the absence of physical signs of puberty by the age of 14 years in boys and 13 years in girls. According to this definition, the prevalence of delayed puberty would be 2%, if the ages of pubertal onset were normally distributed in the population. However, the prevalence or incidence of delayed puberty has not been described before, as far as we know. Our aim was to study the incidence of delayed puberty in central Sweden.<p class...

Introduction: Ghrelin is a growth hormone-releasing acylated peptide stimulating the appetite, mainly produced in the stomach, and with an important role in pubertal development (1). Two ghrelin forms have been described, acylated (AG) and desacylated (DAG), but it is debated whether DAG is an active hormone or a degradation product of AG (2). Our aim was to evaluate the effects of adding the protease inhibitor 4-(2-aminoethyl) benzenesufonyl fluoride hydrochl...

Background: SHOX encodes a transcription factor implicated in skeletal development. Approximately 70% and ~2.5% of Leri-Weill dyschondrosteosis (LWD) and idiopathic short stature (ISS) patients, respectively, have a defect in SHOX or its regulatory regions.Objective and hypotheses: i) To perform SHOX mutation screening in a cohort of 585 patients referred with a clinical suspicion of LWD or ISS. ii) To determine which is the <e...

Introduction: Childhood obesity is associated with several complications, involving many systems. The prevalence of respiratory problems, such as obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSAS), is higher in obese children and adolescents. In fact, OSAS affects 13–59% of obese children and the severity is strongly associated with weight excess. Although overnight pulse oximetry (PO) can be used for diagnosing OSAS, a complete night polysomnography (PSG), which re...