ESPE Abstracts

Background: The phenotype of SHOX aploinsufficiency is highly variable also in affected members of the same family with broad differences in severity of short stature, disproportion, presence of Madelung deformity.Case presentation: We present a family with a new mutation of SHOX gene. A 2.3 years old girl, born at term from unrelated parents, came to our observation for short stature. Her height was −2.02 SDS, arm span was normal, sitting heigh/he...

Background: Thyroid nodules (TN) are rare in children but often show more aggressive features than in adults. Irradiated childhood cancer survivors (CCS) are at risk for malignant thyroid nodules.Objective and hypotheses: To retrospectively compare the incidence of differentiated thyroid cancer (DTC), the clinical onset and the medium-term follow-up in a pediatric population (EC <18 years), with and without risk factors examined for TN, among 1990 an...

Background: Endothelial dysfunction is a macrovascular complication of type 1 diabetes. Children and adolescents with type 1 diabetes may suffer of endothelial dysfunction, irrespective of chronological age and disease duration.Objective and hypotheses: After evaluating the prevalence of early endothelial dysfunction, as measured by mean of reactive hyperaemia in adolescents with type 1 diabetes, at baseline and after 1-year follow-up, we started a 6-mon...

Background: A high risk of congenital hypothyroidism (CH) has been documented in multiple pregnancies. Over the years special screening procedures for preterm and twin babies (re-screening at 2–4 weeks of life) have been adopted by many screening laboratories worldwide. However, no extensive studies have been performed to verify how many co-twins with negative test at first screening (3–5 days of life) become positive at re-screening, and the utility of a long-term f...

Background: The isodicentric Y (idic Y) is one of the most common aberrations of the Y chromosome. Most patients (pts) are chromosomal mosaics, including 45,X cell line.Objective and hypotheses: Our aim is to describe clinical and molecular features of our 45,X/46,Xidic(Y) cases.Method: We retrospectively evaluate the clinical description of nine cases (six females, one male, two with ambiguous genitalia) with mosaic karyotype 45,X...

Background: Thyroid dysgenesis has been considered a sporadic disease, but recent observations suggested a possible genetic basis.Objective and hypotheses: The aim of our report is to evaluate the incidence of hormonal and ultrasound thyroid anomalies in siblings of CH patients with thyroid dysgenesis.Method: In Emilia-Romagna Region (Italy) 328 CH infants were diagnosed by neonatal screening between January 2000 and December 2012....

Background: Hypothalamic obesity (HO), due to midline congenital malformations, genetic diseases or hypothalamo-hypophysis tumours, is severe and difficult to treat. Patients are scarcely compliant to diet and physical activity, for disabilities often affecting them. Drugs have been rarely employed.Objective and hypotheses: Aim of the study was to treat hypopituitaric children and adolescents affected by severe HO with a multidisciplinary approach includ...

Background: Final height (FH) in patients (pts) with congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH) due to 21-hydroxylase deficiency (21OHD) is often under the genetic target, despite improvement of new therapeutic strategies.Objective and hypotheses: The aim of this study is to evaluate FH in a cohort of pts with CAH due to 21OHD diagnosed before and after newborn screening (NBS) era in Emilia-Romagna, Italy.Method: We evaluated final heigh...

Background: An important issue in the management of congenital hypothyroidism (CH) is the best initial dose of levothyroxine (L-T4) in order to achieve optimal neurocognitive outcomes. Both European and American guidelines suggest an initial dose of 10–15 μg/kg per die but trials on long-term effects of different doses within this range are lacking.Objective and hypotheses: This was a multicenter randomized trial to ev...

Background: Skeletal dysplasias are characterised by bone-cartilage involvement and impairment of growth and body proportions. Reports of the benefits of GH treatment are difficult to evaluate for the small number of subjects, short period of treatment, few final height (FH) data in groups with and without GH deficiency (GHD).Objective and hypotheses: The aim of our study was to assess FH and body proportions in pts with skeletal dysplasia and GHD.<p...