ESPE Abstracts

Background: Hypothalamic obesity (HyOb) is a syndrome of inexorable, treatment-resistant obesity seen after congenital (e.g. septo-optic dysplasia (SOD)) or acquired (e.g. tumour-related) hypothalamic damage, often co-existing with hyperphagia, panhypopituitarism, autism, sleep, and temperature dysregulation. Its pathophysiology is poorly understood but hyperphagia and excess caloric intake may be less important than previously thought.Objective and hypo...

Introduction: Pituitary imaging is important for the evaluation of hypothalamo-pituitary axis defects in patients diagnosed with childhood-onset growth hormone deficiency (CO-GHD). Published evidence shows that there is a close relationship between structural changes in the pituitary gland and growth hormone deficiency.Aim: To evaluate the relationship between clinical, laboratory and magnetic resonance imaging of the pi...

Introduction: Prader-Willi Syndrome (PWS) is a complex genetic condition associated with feeding difficulties, hypotonia, developmental delay in infancy; hyperphagia leading to extreme obesity, growth failure and behavioral problems in childhood. Coeliac disease (CD), is an autoimmune disease characterized by gluten intolerance and a variety of symptoms most commonly diarrhea or constipation and failure to thrive. In PWS the challenge is to optimize growth while avoiding obesi...

Background: Anti-Müllerian hormone (AMH) inhibits the in utero growth of the Müllerian structures in female fetuses. In neonates with suspected disorders of sexual development (DSDs), the presence of testicular tissues and functioning Sertoli cells can be investigated by testing for serum AMH concentration.Objective: To evaluate the performance of two new AMH assays in a hospital laboratory.Method: The technical performan...

Background: Laron syndrome is an autosomal recessive disease caused by molecular defect in GH receptor gene. The patients have severe growth retardation and clinical features of GHD with low IGF-1, high basal GH and failed response to IGF-1 stimulation test. The only proved treatment is daily recombinant IGF-1 administration which showed improvement in linear growth.Aim: To describe the largest group of patients with lar...

Background: Patients with 46, XY DSD present conflicts and issues related to gender identity (GI) and change to male social sex in patients registered in the female social sex is not rare. The HTP test is a projective psychological test, which assesses aspects related to sexual identification. GI in this test is defined as female (F), male (M) or ambiguous.Objective and hypotheses: To evaluate GI in patients with 46, XY DSD by the HTP test and compare th...

Background: Prader–Willi syndrome (PWS) results from loss of paternally imprinted genes from the 15q11–13 region and causes hypotonia with weight faltering in infancy, followed later by obesity which is classically attributed to hyperphagia.Objective and hypotheses: To determine, where possible, the age at onset of unwanted weight gain (as opposed to actual obesity) in children with PWS attending a specialist clinic.Metho...

Background: In children undergoing investigation of testicular function the relationship between serum anti-Mullerian hormone (AMH) and the testosterone response to hCG stimulation test (HST) is unclear.Method: 75 children (3F, 72M) with a median age of 1.08 years (range, 0.003, 14.3) were investigated for suspected DSD by AMH on D1 and testosterone on D1 and D4, before and after 3-day HST. Of these children, 27 had an additional prolonged HST. Normal te...

Introduction: Achieving/maintaining effective hormone suppression is fundamental in treating Central Precocious Puberty(CPP). CPP patients are vulnerable to late dosing as they cannot self-administer and require clinic/hospital visits for injections, currently exacerbated by COVID-19. In children, the hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal axis may rebound faster than elderly oncology patients, so hormone escapes are possible with late dosing. Additionally, the stimul...

Background: Central precocious puberty (CPP) is a common condition in girls and has been associated with deterioration of final height (FH). Height prognosis (HP) is critical for the decision of treatment in CPP. There are several methods for predicting FH in CPP but none is completely reliable. Most methods consider bone age (BA), which is very imprecise, but there is no consensus on which method is the best to estimate FH.Objective: To compare the accu...