ESPE Abstracts

Background/objective and hypotheses: Chest circumference (CC) is related to intrauterine growth rate as well as to development-function of respiratory system. We evaluated the relevance of birth body weight (BW) and blood serum IGF1 (IG1) in birth CC (BC) relations to blood serum IGF-binding-protein-3 (IB3) after control for preterm birth (PTB), oxigen (O2) supplementation as %O2 in respiratory gases (O2R) and assisted ventilation of any kind (...

Background: Congenital growth hormone deficiency may be isolated (IGHD) or multiple pituitary hormone deficiency (MPHD). The Sonic Hedgehog signalling (SHH) pathway has an important role in the pituitary development and growth, acting early in ventral forebrain. The SHH signalling mediates its effects through three zinc fingers proteins (Gli1, Gli2 and Gli3), which lead to activation or repression of target genes. Several heterozygous GLI2 mutations have been reported in patie...

Aim: There is a current lack of international guidelines for managing the endocrine aspects of Noonan syndrome (NS). A clinical practice survey was developed to identify knowledge gaps and differences in the management of patients with NS across Europe.Materials and Methods: A 60-question clinical practice survey was developed for clinical geneticists, paediatric endocrinologists and paediatric cardiologists directly involved in treating...

Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS) is one of the most common endocrine disorders among women of reproductive age, and is characterised by chronic inflammation and in most cases by insulin resistance besides ovulatory dysfunction and hyperandrogenism. HMGB1 is a small protein with cytokine activity that can activate nuclear factor kappa light chain enhancer of activated B cells (Nf-kB), and signals through the Receptor for advanced glycation end products (RAGEs) and through the T...

Background: The goal of congenital hypothyroidism (CH) treatment is rapid normalization and maintenance of TSH and FT4 in the reference range. Recommended starting dose of levothyroxine (LT4) ranges from 10-15 mg/kg/d. Hyperthyroxinemia can be accepted in the context of normal TSH and LT4 should only be reduced in case of symptoms or repeatedly increased FT4. The aim of this study was to quantify duration and maximum peak of FT4 levels outside the reference range for each CH s...

Birth chest circumference(CC) shows often, like birth gestational age(GA), tight direct relations to birth body weight(BW). However distinct connections of hypoxia/undernutrition with different body structures might be suspected based on brain-, heart- and adrenal-sparing following intrauterine growth restriction and, postnatally, on higher chest size for body mass observed at high altitude. Growth retarded fetuses gestated by hypoxic pregnant animals may present increments of...

Direct relationships of estimated birth brain weight(BRW) to birth body weight (BW) ratios (BBR) and of BW<=10.th centile for GA(SGA) with blood serum Insulin-like Growth Factor-II(IG2) to blood serum Insulin-like Growth Factor Binding Protein-3 (IB3) ratios (IG2/IB3R), and inverse relations between BW-SDS and birth chest circumference(CC) / BW ratio (i.e., CC through BW; CC/BWR) have been detected by our group in the human newborn(NWB). We evaluated the possibility that CC...

Noonan syndrome (NS) is an autosomal dominant, variably expressed, multisystem disorder with an estimated prevalence of 1 in 1000–2500. In 2001, PTPN11 was the first gene associated to Noonan syndrome; now, at least 20 other genes have been discovered especially in the RAS–MAPK signalling pathway. More recently, missense mutations in RIT1 have been reported as causative of NS. A six-years female patient was referred to our Hospital for short stature (<-2 sds) an...

Background: Among children with idiopathic short stature, Italian data reported a prevalence of short stature homeobox-containing gene (SHOX) deficiency disorders (SHOX-D) near to 1/1.000-2.000 (1.1-15%) with a wide phenotypic spectrum. Current guidelines support recombinant human growth hormone (rhGH) therapy in SHOX-D children, but long-term data are still lacking. This national survey aims to evaluate long-term efficacy and safety of rhGH therapy in Italian...

Background: Antipituitary (APA) and antihypothalamus antibodies (AHA) have not been investigated in children and adolescents with brain tumors.Patients and Methods: Sixty-three patients with craniopharyngioma, glioma and germinoma treated with surgery and/or chemotherapy and/or radiotherapy were evaluated at a median age of 13 years. Forty-one had MPHD, 6 had a single defect being GH the most common (65.1%), followed...