ESPE Abstracts

Background: Periventricular nodular heterotopia (PNH) is a brain malformation caused by dysregulation of neuronal migration during cerebral development, resulting in nodular neuronal structures in the ventricular surface. Associated ectopy of the posterior pituitary has been reported in literature and is usually associated with deficiencies of the anterior pituitary. The occasion of an isolated central diabetes insipidus due to absence of the posterior pituita...

Introduction: Transition medicine aims at the coordinated transfer of young patients with a chronic disease from paediatric to adult specialist care. The present study reflects 20 years of experience in transitioning patients with congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH) in a single centre university setting.Methods: The endocrine transition clinic was established in 2002 and offers joint consultations with a paediatric and ...

Background: The assignment to type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM) can be confirmed by the determination of diabetes-specific autoantibodies. Five different antibodies can be determined. The determination of several antibodies is more expensive than the determination of a single antibody. In times of scarce resources, the sequential determination of antibodies could save costs. The aim of this study was to determine the frequency of antibodies and their age and gen...

Introduction: Childhood obesity is associated with alterations in hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal axis activity. We tested the hypothesis that multiple alterations in the metabolism of glucocorticoids are required for the development of hypertension in children who become overweight.Methods: Timed spot urine for targeted gas chromatography-mass spectrometry steroid metabolome analysis was collected from (1) overweight/hyp...

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: Adrenal insufficiency (AI) is a rare condition caused by an inadequate production of glucocorticoids. Preliminary data in adults suggest that AI could be associated with an increased susceptibility to infections; moreover, AI patients are at risk to develop a severe course of infectious diseases and to experience a life-threatening adrenal crisis. The aim of our study is to evaluate the severity and the outcome of COVID-19 in pediatric AI patients ...

Background: At present few data have clearly showed an increased frequency of idiopathic central precocious puberty (CPP) in females during the COVID-19 pandemic. The role of environmental factors is not fully understood and various hypotheses have been formulated.Aims of the study: To evaluate retrospectively the incidence of newly diagnosed CPP and other pubertal disorders (Premature thelarche, early puberty, fast pube...

Background: Human scalp hair is a valuable matrix for determining long-term cortisol concentrations, with wide-spread applicability in clinical care as well as research. However, pediatric reference intervals are lacking.The aim of this study is to establish age-adjusted reference intervals for hair cortisol in children aged 0-18 years and to gain insight into hair-growth velocity in children up to 2 years old.Methods: A...

Introduction: Few studies have been published comparing the liquid and tablet formulations of L-T4 in pediatric patients, with a short follow-up period. Both formulations seemed to produce a rapid normalization of thyroid fuction with a tendency of a greater TSH inhibition in children taking the L-T4 liquid drops. The aim of our study is to compare the long-term effectiveness and saftey of both liquid and tablet L-T4 therapy in CH patients up to 3 years old via a multicenter s...

Background: Prenatal dexamethasone (DXM) treatment has been proposed to prevent genital virilization in girls with congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH), however its safety has been questioned for potential adverse effects on the foetus and the mother.Objective and hypotheses: To analyse clinical practice and prenatal treatment experience with DXM during pregnancy at risk of having her daughters with severe CAH.Method: An online sur...