ESPE Abstracts

Introduction: Developing an acute onset thyroid nodule is rare in children and usually associates with infectious or neoplastic disease; when linked to hyperthyroidism, the most likely diagnosis is toxic adenoma.Clinical description: 9-year-old boy with no relevant medical history was seen at the emergency department for acute cervical pain and tumor involving the left thyroid lobe with no inflammatory signs or history of trauma. Physical examination rev...

Introduction: Type 1 Narcolepsy is a rare pediatric condition characterized by central hypersomnia secondary to hypocretin deficiency. It can also involve the neuroendocrine axis, in particular determining obesity and central precocious puberty (CPP).Objectives: The primary aim of this study is the evaluation of endocrine and auxological aspects at diagnosis and during follow-up in children affected with T1N, in treatmen...

Objectives: The increased incidence of childhood obesity and related non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) has determined the need to identify a non-invasive technique to diagnose and monitor NAFLD. Two-dimensional shear wave elastography (2D-SWE) has emerged as a reliable, non-invasive, tool to evaluate liver tissue elasticity in clinical practice. Aims of this study were to longitudinally evaluate 2D-SWE changes in relation to weight loss, metabolic prof...

Introduction: Noonan syndrome (NS) is one of a group of diseases known as rasopathies, which share a common molecular substrate: alterations in the RAS-MAPK signaling pathway. NS is characterized by clinical and genetic heterogeneity. Up to 50% of cases are caused by variants in the PTPN11 gene, although more than 10 genes have been identified as involved in the pathogenesis of this disease with marked clinical overlap.Objectives...

Introduction: Early identification of classic 21OH-Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia (21OH-CAH) through newborn screening (NBS) is crucial to prevent adrenal crises, especially in males. Today 21 OH-CAH NBS is performed in 5/21 regions of Italy. This study aims to report the results of 21OH-CAH NBS in Italy from 2006 to 2019.Methods: All patients underwent a dried blood spot (DBS) test for 17OH-progesterone (17OHP) within t...

Mast cells are known to control mineralocorticoid synthesis and secretion in human normal adrenal gland and aldosterone-producing adenomas through release of serotonin. We recently detected these immune cells in human fetal adrenal from 18 weeks of gestation in the subcapsular layer, in correlation with the expression of steroidogenic enzymes required for aldosterone biosynthesis. This observation suggests the implication of mast cells in the mineralocorticoid synthesizing pat...

Background: Mutations in SHOX or its regulatory regions have been detected in ~70% of Léri-Weill dyschondrosteosis (LWD) and ~2.5% of idiopathic short stature (ISS) cases, suggesting the implication of other genes or loci. Recent studies have identified NPR2 defects in ISS patients.Objective and hypotheses: To investigate if NPR2 mutations can account for a proportion of the cases referred for LWD and ISS in whom no SHOX/PAR1 mutation was detected.<...

Background: Disorders of Sex Development (DSD) comprise several phenotypes due to dysfunction in genes involved in human sexual determination and differentiation. The most frequent aetiologies among 46,XY DSD are androgen insensitivity syndrome and 5-alpha-reductase type 2 deficiency due mutations in AR and SRD5A2 genes, respectively.Objective and hypotheses: The purpose of this study was to investigate mutations in AR and ...

Background: Gestational obesity has not only adverse effects on the mothers’ health but also on the developing fetus. Newborns of obese pregnant women have increased birth weight and increased risk for obesity and associated diseases in adulthood. The mechanisms by which maternal nutrition induce these changes in the offspring may involve microRNAs (miRNAs) regulation.Aims and objectives: To study the associations between circulating miRNAs altered ...

Background: miRNAs are valuable circulating biomarkers and therapeutic targets for metabolic diseases. A differential pattern of miRNAs has been described in pregnant women with preeclampsia or gestational diabetes; however, it is unknown whether maternal obesity affects the profile of circulating miRNAs.Aims and objectives: To define the circulating pattern of miRNAs in pregestational and gestational obesity; and to explore their associations with mater...