ESPE Abstracts

Background: Germline mutations in SDHB gene are associated with the familial paraganglioma (PGL) syndrome that carries the highest malignant potential. Although penetrance is lower than initially described, lack of effective treatments for metastatic PGLs makes screening essential for early tumour detection, surgical removal and improved outcome. However, no consensus exists in relation to timing and mode of screening.Objective: To assess publis...

Background: Adults have a weight that is normal for them. This is referred to as their ‘set-point’ for weight. Studies have shown physiological protection of this set-point, explaining why most obese adults who diet eventually regain weight.Objective and hypotheses: We hypothesised that set-points for weight, and their physiological defence, are flexible in childhood but become fixed sometime around puberty. We aimed to show that obese children...

Background: The human foetal adrenal (FA) undergoes vast physiological changes as pregnancy progresses. Original descriptions of FA development emerged following morphometric studies from spontaneous/medical terminations. These revealed the greatest increase in FA size was during the first trimester. Recently, sonographic evaluation of human FA volume and length has led to the creation of normal FA growth centiles and correlations between FA size and estimated foetal weight (E...

Background: Adrenal Insufficiency (AI) is a heterogeneous diagnosis comprising multiple central and peripheral causes. The unifying feature is the requirement for glucocorticoid replacement and subsequent risk of life-threatening Adrenal Crisis (AC) and Adrenal Death (AD). Very few studies have investigated rates of AD in children. Multiple studies have reported symptoms of children with AC as interpreted by medical staff but no studies have looked at parental...

Background: Growth hormone insensitivity (GHI) encompasses normal/elevated growth hormone (GH), low IGF-I levels and growth restriction. Non-classical/mild-moderate GHI is an emerging entity which is poorly characterised, and, in many subjects, the underlying cause is unclear. Heterozygous dominant negative (DN) variants located in the intracellular/transmembrane domain of the GH receptor (GHR) cause a ‘non-classical’ GHI phenotype.<p class="abst...

Background: Noonan syndrome (NS) is caused by variants in multiple genes regulating the RAS/MAPK signalling cascade. NS can present with growth failure associated with growth hormone insensitivity (GHI; low IGF-I and normal/elevated GH levels). Variants in LZTR1 lead to NS, although the interaction of LZTR1 with the RAS/MAPK and the GH-IGF-1 pathways remain to be elucidated.Objectives: To gain insights into the ...

Background: Turner Syndrome (TS) with a 45,X phenotype is generally more severe than TS with mosaicism, but the potential role of the degree of mosaicism in modulating TS phenotype has never been investigated. We assessed the impact of various degrees of 45,X/ 46,XX mosaicism on phenotypic features in a cohort of TS patients.Method: We analysed a cohort of TS with 45,X/ 46,XX mosaicism (percentage mosaicism from peripheral blood lymphocytes, known in <em...

Background: Shox gene, located on the short arm (p) of the X chromosome, is expressed in the growth plate cartilage in pre and post natal life. Whereas the dose dependent association between the number of active copies of the SHOX gene and height is well established, studies addressing a more subtle variability between the quality of fetal growth, the severity of post natal height deficit and karyotype subgroups in Turner syndrome (TS) are still limited....

Background: In Turner syndrome (TS), Shox haploinsufficiency accounts largely, but not entirely, for the short stature of patients, which has been estimated at a mean loss of 20 cm with respect to target height. GH treatment has been shown to improve adult height (AH), although individual outcomes vary markedly. Little is known about the relationship between the dosage effects of the X-linked gene and responsiveness to GH.Objective: To determine whether ...

Introduction: HbA1C goals are rarely achieved in children with Type 1 diabetes (T1D) except at the cost of increased hypoglycaemia episodes. The Diabeloop Hybrid Closed-Loop system improves time in range and glycemic control in adults. However, the efficacy and safety of the system had not yet been evaluated in children. Our objective was to evaluate the safety and efficiency of the Diabeloop hybrid closed-loop system in prepubescent children (DBL4K).<p cl...