ESPE Abstracts

Context: Prader-Willi syndrome (PWS) is a multisystemic complex genetic disorder. Individuals with PWS are at risk to develop sleep-disordered breathing, including obstructive and central sleep apnea syndromes. PWS patients commonly receive Growth hormone (GH) treatment. Concerns have been raised following reports of sudden death shortly after GH initiation. During recent years GH treatment was increasingly initiated earlier – commencing treatment already during the first...

Background: Restarting rhGH treatment in adolescents with childhood-onset GH deficiency (CO-GHD) is usually based on the GH re-test, IGF-1, additional pituitary hormone deficiencies and pituitary gland morphology, but not on body composition. Short-term changes of body composition in adolescents with CO-GHD when off rhGH may contribute to the identification of those in need of continuation of treatment.Study design: In this prospective single-centre stud...

Background: Donohue syndrome (DS) is caused by autosomal-recessive loss of function mutations of the insulin receptor gene. DS is associated with diabetes mellitus unresponsive to conventional insulin therapy due to severe insulin resistance. Patients exhibit IUGR and postnatal failure to thrive. They develop a characteristic facies, hypertrichosis and acanthosis nigricans. Most patients die within the first two years of life because of respiratory infections. To date, no caus...

Background: Low birth weight and unfavourable intrauterine conditions are associated with long-term effects on life.Objective and hypotheses: In a longitudinal study, we followed genetically identical twins with intra-twin birth-weight (bw) differences due to twin–twin transfusion syndrome from birth until after puberty. We propose that differences in birth weight lead to differences in hormone levels with effects on personality and cognitive functi...

Aim: This study investigated rhythmical massage therapy (RMT) and heart rate variability-biofeedback (HRV) to treat dysmenorrhea.Methods: As a part of a randomized controlled trial, 60 patients were allocated to one of the two intervention groups or the crossover control group. For the qualitative study, before and after the 3-month intervention, the women drew their pain into a body silhouette. With the aid of these drawings, half-structured interviews ...

Background: Low birth weight and unfavourable intrauterine conditions are associated with long-term effects on life. The influence of intrauterine conditions on personality might be underestimated.Objective and hypotheses: In a longitudinal study we followed genetically identical twins with intra-twin birth-weight (bw) differences due to twin–twin transfusion syndrome (ttts) from birth until puberty.Method: 23 pairs of monozyg...

Background: Glucocorticoids (GCs) are widely used for treatment of inflammatory and autoimmune conditions. Prolonged use of GCs, however, has several negative side effects, including bone growth impairment in children. Previous studies have shown that GC-induced apoptosis in growth plate chondrocytes is mediated by inhibition of the PI3K–Akt signaling pathway and activation of the pro-apoptotic protein Bax. Humanin, a small mitochondrial derived peptide, has shown promisi...

Background: Children born small-for-gestational-age (SGA) especially when they experience rapid catch-up growth have an increased risk for obesity and metabolic disturbances later in life.Aims and objectives: Little is known about the effect of catch-down (c-d) growth and its effect on metabolic parameters in children born large-for-gestational-age (LGA).Patients and methods: 101 pre-pubertal children with a birth-weight and/or len...

Background: Patients with Prader-Willi-Syndrome (PWS) seem to be a risk-group for COVID-19 infection, due to their syndrome associated clinical features of hyperphagia and obesity, risk for central hypoventilation and obstructive sleep apnoea. Yet, little is known about the severity of infections and the long-term consequences in these patients. Therefore, we studied auxologic parameters and sleep laboratory examinations in PWS patients before and after COVID-...

Aim: Few data are currently available on the reliability of the different anthropometric, instrumental and biochemical indexes in recognizing the presence of the metabolic syndrome (MetS) in severe childhood obesity. The objective of our study was to find out a simple and accurate index to use in deciding whether to initiate a search for MetS in this at-risk population.Patients and Methods: A retrospective study based on...