ESPE Abstracts

Background: Craniopharyngiomas are the commonest pituitary tumours of childhood. Though benign histologically, their localisation and invasive tendency can cause significant neuroendocrine morbidity and late mortality.Objective and hypotheses: To prospectively determine risk factors for neuroendocrine morbidity by longitudinal survival analysis.Method: All children with craniopharyngioma newly presenting to our quaternary centre be...

Background: Recurrence of craniopharyngiomas influences mortality. Apart from the extent of surgical resection, few clinical parameters have been consistently shown to be associated with recurrence. Radical resection is difficult due to infiltration of surrounding tissue and unacceptable morbidity. Predictors of recurrence are therefore needed.Aim: To establish a multinational cohort of patients with craniopharyngioma an...

Background: Impairment of the chromatin remodeling factors ATRX and DAXX and telomeres abnormality play a role in cancer biology, influencing the clinical outcomes. However, their roles in adrenal tumorigenesis require broader investigation.Aim: To evaluate ATRX and DAXX genotype and expression, telomere length, and the alternative lengthening of telomeres (ALT), as well as their clinical significance, in primary adrenoc...

Background: The hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal (HPA) axis, and cortisol in particular, has been reported to be involved in obesity-associated metabolic disturbances in adults and in specific populations of adolescents.Objective and hypotheses: To investigate the associations between serum ACTH and cortisol levels and cardiovascular risk factors in obese children and adolescents.Method: Of 1119 obese children and adolescen...

Background: IGF1 is an important marker of GH treatment and is used to titrate the GH dose.Objective and hypotheses: We report the correlation between the GH treatment induced increase in IGF1 and growth improvement in short children born small for gestational age (SGA).Method: We recruited 13 pre-pubertal SGA children (eight boys, five girls) who received GH treatment. Eight continued treatment for >2 years. We retrospectively...

Background: Osteogenesis imperfecta (OI) is a genetic connective tissue disorder with variable phenotype, mainly characterized by bone fragility, short stature and non-skeleton findings. Since growth failure is a predominant feature of OI, recombinant human growth hormone (rhGH) has been suggested as a potential intervention. We describe two boys with OI type I treated with rhGH.Case Reports: Patient 1 had the first frac...

Background: The phenotypic spectrum of short stature homeobox-containing gene deficiency disorders (SHOX-D) ranges from non-specific short stature to Leri-Weill dyschondrosteosis. Current guidelines support rhGH in SHOX-D children, but long-term data are still lacking. Moreover, no correlation has been established yet between the severity of phenotype, including the response to rhGH, and the underlying SHOX pathogenic variant.Aims: To ev...

Background: Controlling therapy of infants, especially from neonates onwards, with classic congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH) is challenging due to the lack of reference values.Methods: We retrospectively analyzed 158 spot urinary steroid hormone metabolite profiles determined by gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC-MS) of 60 infants aged 0–4.2 years with classic 21-hydroxylase deficiency (21-OHD) on hydr...

Background: Optimisation of hydrocortisone replacement therapy remains challenging due to complex pharmacokinetics as circulating cortisol is protein bound mainly to corticosteroid-binding globulin (CBG) that has a circadian rhythm.Objective: A detailed analysis of the CBG circadian rhythm and its impact on cortisol exposure during hydrocortisone replacement therapy.Methods: CBG was measured over 24 h in 14 healthy...

Background: Vitamin D deficiency in children clinically manifests as rickets causing growth impairment and bowing of the long bones, potentially increasing the ratio between crown-rump length and length (CRL:L) or sitting height and height (SH:H).Objective and hypotheses: We investigated whether CRL:L in 19-months-olds and SH:H in 36-months-olds were lower with higher cord 25hydroxyvitamin D (25OHD).Method: Participants were includ...