ESPE Abstracts

Despite significant advances in the medical management of childhood diseases, glucocorticoids (GCs) continue to be the mainstay of therapy for numerous serious conditions, including hematological malignancies, Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) and inflammatory disorders. In order to understand the natural history of bone development in GC-treated children, a pan-Canadian longitudinal observational research study called "STOPP" (STeroid...

Catch-up growth (CUG) is characterized by a period of supranormal height velocity following a transient period of growth inhibition. The two classical hypotheses on the mechanism are the neuro-endocrine hypothesis (a central mechanism that would recognize the degree of mismatch between actual size and target size) and the growth plate hypothesis (local regulation of growth according to a preset cellular program of senescence, characterized by decreasing growth proliferation ra...

Study of the histopathology of human type 1 and 2 diabetes through the national pancreatic organ donor (nPOD) consortium has yielded interesting new insights that should also aid us in developing improved therapeutic approaches.1. When insulitis is observed, it usually shows a predominance of CD8 T cells, some of which are autoantigen specific (see also Coppieters et al. JEM 2012). It will be therapeutically challenging to remove/prevent CD8 mem...

Background: Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the major cause of mortality in diabetes mellitus type 1 (T1DM). Dyslipidemia will increase this risk. Several guidelines have been published, how to treat dyslipidemia in T1DM, yet some studies have shown that the number of patients who are treated according to these guidelines is low.Objective and hypotheses: To investigate the frequency of dyslipidemia in children and adolescents with T1DM and if they are tr...

The transient activation of the hypothalamus-pituitary-gonadal (HPG) axis shortly after birth has been described as early as in the 70ies. This discovery has since been applied clinically as a ‘window of opportunity’ for diagnostic evaluation of patients suspected of endocrine disorders and differences of sex development. With the advent of increasingly more sensitive and specific analytical methods for peptide and steroid hormones produced in the pituitary, gonads...

Background: Cis-gender females are known to mount stronger immune responses to invading pathogens or vaccines than cis-gender males. However, this is also associated with increased risk of autoimmunity. Little is known about the immunophenotypes of transgender individuals on gender-affirming hormonal treatment, despite growing evidence that hormones influence the immune system. Via the process of class-switch recombination (CSR), B-cell immunoglobulin isotype ...

Introduction: In cases of disorder of sex development (DSD), the change between the gender assigned at birth and the individual's chosen gender identity can occur especially after puberty.Aim: was to determine the relationship between genetic sex, gender assigned at birth and gender identity, and the importance of molecular diagnosis.Method:154patients older than 14years of ag...

Background: ROHHAD/ROHHADNET syndrome (rapid-onset obesity with hypothalamic dysfunction, central hypoventilation, autonomic dysregulation with or without neural tumor - NET) – has been reported in association with cerebral venous thrombosis events, as reported also in central hypoventilation syndrome. It is not clear whether thrombotic risk represents a cause or a consequence of hypoventilation and hypothalamic dysfunction. Aim of our study was to chara...

Background: Childhood-onset obesity is a multifactorial disease with a lifelong health burden. In many cases, obesity is the result of the interaction between genetic predisposition and environmental factors. Aim of our study was to define phenotypic features of obese children and adolescents and to find possible associations between clinical phenotype and genetic variants.Patients and Methods: We recruited obese childre...

Background: Neonatal Diabetes Mellitus (NDM) is a rare form of monogenic diabetes that typically presents during the first 6 months of life. Its prevalence is about 1:100 000 live births; however it may rise up to 1:29 000 in highly consanguineous populations. Mutations in 22 different genes are reported; with the most common cause being potassium channel subunit gene (KCNJ11/ABCC8) mutations. However, causative mutations among consanguineous populations seem to diffe...