ESPE Abstracts

Background: We recently identified loss-of-function mutations in makorin ring finger 3 (MKRN3) as a cause of familial central precocious puberty (CPP). Analysis of Mkrn3 expression in the arcuate nucleus of mice showed high expression levels in juvenile mice, with a marked reduction prior to puberty onset, suggesting that MKRN3 inhibits puberty initiation. The function of MKRN3 is not known but based on its amino acid sequence, it is predicted to act as an ubiquitin l...

Background: Silver Russell syndrome (SRS) is an imprinting defect disease.Objective: To study clinical characteristics and imprinting defects in Chinese children with SRS.Methods: Forty-nine SRS cases were studied retrospectively. Out of these 49 cases, 36 were available to be detected chromosome 11p15 imprinting defects and 21 cases were detected uniparental disomy of maternal chromosome 7 (UPD(7) mat).Resul...

Background: CANDLE (chronic atypical neutrophilic dermatosis with lipodystrophy and elevated temperature) syndrome is a recently described autoinflammatory disease that manifests in early infancy with recurrent fever, violaceous swelling of the eyelids, purpuric skin lesions, hypochromic anemia and elevated acute phase reactants. It is autosomal recessively inherited and associated with partial lipodystrophy, growth retardation and hepatomegaly. PSMB8 (proteasome subu...

Background: Silver-Russell syndrome (SRS) is a rare congenital developmental disorder characterised by pre- and postnatal growth failure, relative macrocephaly, triangular face, hemihypotrophy, and fifth finger clinodactyly. Hypomethylation of the H19-DMR and maternal uniparental disomy chromosome 7 (UPD(7)mat) were identified in about 30 and 10% of SRS patients respectively. Genetic causes of the remaining 60% of the patients are unknown. Growth failure, small hands, and hypo...

Background: The 12q14.3q15 microdeletion syndrome is a rare entity of which only 16 new cases have been described to date. The syndrome consists of the association of severe pre- and postnatal growth retardation, proportional short stature, psychomotor retardation and osteopoikilosis. The phenotypic appearance of these patients poses a differential diagnosis with Silver-Russell syndrome, among other entities.Clinical description: A 10-month-old boy was r...

Background: Bone age studies require X-ray of the left hand and wrist to assess skeletal maturity. The Tanner-Whitehouse 3 (TW3) scoring method provides an objective framework for calculating bone age and specifies exact placement of the hand. In our service we have noted a number of poor quality films, caused by difficulty with hand placement, e.g. scrunching of the fingers. This compromises the ability to score accurately and in a proportion necessitates re-X-ray, with time,...

Background: Bedside blood ketone measurement has often been used in the management of diabetic ketoacidosis. However there is no available data on its reliability in the evaluation of hypoglycaemia in children. We aimed to assess the reliability of bedside ketones (β-hydroxybutyrate, BHB) in the evaluation of hypoglycaemia in children.Objective and hypotheses: To assess reliability of bedside ketone measurement in a clinical setting of hypoglycaemia...

In the past year, basic and genetic studies revealed again novel genes and mechanisms implicated in 46,XX and 46,XY DSD. The Fgf9-/- mouse model of human synostosis syndromes revealed an unexpected male-to-female sex reversal phenotype, so far not observed in humans. Specific heterozygous human WT1 gene variants located in the 4th zinc finger were found to cause 46,XX virilization due to (ovo-)testicular DSD, and the transcription factor...

Introduction: Variegated mosaic aneuploidy syndrome (MVA) is a rare autosomal recessive disease characterized by a variable percentage of chromosomal gains and losses, resulting in multiple mosaic aneuploidies, which explains a great phenotypic variety and may predispose to the development of cancer. Bi-allelic mutations in CEP57 are the cause of MVA2. CEP57 encodes a centrosome protein involved in microtubule stabilization and is crucial for maintaining prope...

Introduction: Interstitial deletions on the long arm of the 12th chromosome are rare and often occur de novo. These deletions have been found to be associated with mental retardation, developmental delay, growth retardation and various congenital anomalies in different studies. In studies up to date, it has been determined all interstitial 12q deletions are clustered between five regions on this chromosome (HMGA2, GRIP1, LEMD3, MSRB3, and TMBIM4). Low birth we...