ESPE Abstracts

Introduction: Early puberty is defined in the girl by the appearance of secondary sexual characteristics before the age of 8 years. Unlike the boy, the central origin is most often idiopathic. The familial nature encourages looking for a genetic mutation which can explain this early maturation of the gonadotropic axis.Cases: These are three girls from a consanguineous marriage. They had no particular pathological anteced...

Background: Non-idiopathic central precocious puberty (CPP) is caused by acquired or congenital hypothalamic lesions visible on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), or associated with various complex genetic and/or syndromic disorders without visible lesions on MRI. We investigated the different types and prevalences of non-isolated CPP phenotypes in a large group of consecutive patients with CPP.Methods: This observational cohort study included all patient...

Background: Pituitary adenomas secreting GH rarely present in childhood. We report the clinical features, management and outcome of the 5 cases referred to a tertiary Paediatric Endocrine/Neurosurgical service over a 20-year period.Patients: **4 Male:1 Female - all aged 15 years at referral. Tanner puberty stages G3-5; B3. Clinical follow-up data range 2 months – 8 years.Clinical features at presentation: Headache, n=...

Puberty is a physical, hormonal and psychosocial transition from childhood to adolescence. Precocious puberty (PP) is the beginning of secondary sexual characteristics before eight years of age in girls. The most common type is known as “central precocious puberty (CPP)”. CPP occurs due to early activation of the hypothalamus-pituitary-gonad (HPG) axis. Although the real trigger for idiopathic CPP is unknown, it has been proposed that it may be caused by the interact...

Background: α-klotho is a transmembrane protein which can be cleaved and act as a circulating hormone. Since low α-klotho levels were found in organic GH deficiency (GHD) and high levels in acromegaly, an interaction between α-klotho, GH and linear growth has been suggested.Objective and hypotheses: We investigated the role of α-klotho protein as a reliable marker of GH secretion in short children and the factors influencing its secre...

Background: Triple A syndrome (AAAS, OMIM#231550) is a very rare inherited disease characterized by the association of chronic adrenal insufficiency, achalasia, alacrima and central and peripheral neurological disorders. It is caused by mutations in the AAAS gene which encodes the nuclear pore complex scaffolding protein ALADIN. The relative prevalence and genotype of AAAS in the Maghreb countries has not been ascertained.Objective and hypotheses: To est...

Background: 16p11.2 microdeletion is most common chromosomal anomaly associated with syndromic obesity. The presence of a large number of flanking segmental duplications/low-copy repeat sequences with a high degree of sequence identity in the short arm of chromosome 16 (16p) leads to recurrent deletions and duplications as a consequence of non-allelic homologous recombination. A recurrent 600kb microdeletion is one of the most frequent genomic imbalances in 16...

Introduction: McCune Albright Syndrome consists of at least 2 of the following 3 features: (1) polyostotic fibrous dysplasia (PFD), (2) Café au lait macules and (3) autonomous endocrine hyperfunction (eg, gonadotropin-independent precocious puberty). Other endocrine syndromes include hyperthyroidism, acromegaly, and Cushing syndrome.Case: 2 year old girl presented with severe hip pain, inability to walk and progressive deformity of right lower limb....

Background: Post renal transplantation, tubulopathies may occur as an effect of transplantation itself or secondary to the use of immunosuppressive regimes. This often requires administration of large doses of sodium bicarbonate and sodium chloride, resulting in poor compliance. Adult studies have shown the advantages of fludrocortisone in the treatment of severe tubulopathies post renal transplant. There is limited data in children. We report our experience from a tertiary pa...

Background: Stunting in children is a heterogeneous state. Many endocrine, somatic, genetic and chromosomal diseases are accompanied by stunting. It can adversely affect indicators of the final height of the child; therefore timely diagnostics and treatment stunting is very important.Objective and hypotheses: To carry out a retrospective analysis of case histories of children and adolescents with genetically determined types of short stature who admitted...