ESPE Abstracts

Background: Children born small-for-gestational-age (SGA) have a birth weight below 2,500 g at a gestational age over 37 weeks or a birth weight or length below the 3-rd percentile for gestational age. They usually recover growth during the first 6–12 months of life, but if not so, it is unlikely the recovery to happen after the age of two unless GH replacement therapy is initiated.Objective: The aim of this study was to evaluate the 1-st year growt...

Background: Little data exist regarding the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis activation and the interplay between the HPA axis and markers of pro- and anti-oxidation in children, following an acute aerobic exercise bout in children.Objective and hypotheses: To investigate the changes of HPA axis hormones following an acute bout of aerobic exercise and their respective association with markers of pro- and anti- oxidation in normal weight and obes...

Background: ICSI is an assisted reproduction technique (ART) mainly used to overcome male infertility. Nowadays, ICSI is employed frequently due to its high success rate, despite it being highly invasive (i.e. epigenetic risk). Recent studies in ART offspring show a higher incidence of cardio-metabolic risk than in naturally-conceived (NC) controls. Thus, in our prior untargeted metabolomic study between ICSI and NC prepubertal girls, we demonstrated insulin resistance in the ...

Introduction: Thyroid hormone resistance (THR) is a rare disease (≈ 1/50000) mainly due to thyroid hormone receptor beta gene (THRB) mutations, generally identified in late childhood and adulthood. We report 2 atypical cases of neonatal diagnosis of THR.Case 1: The newborn presented with neonatal respiratory distress due to a voluminous compressive goiter, requiring invasive ventilation. Thyroid function test...

Background: Lipodystrophies are a group of rare disorders characterized by varying degrees of body fat loss. The metabolic abnormalities associated with lipodystrophy include insulin resistance, often leading to diabetes mellitus, hypertriglyceridemia that may be severe enough to cause acute pancreatitis and hepatic steatosis that may lead to cirrhosis.They can be either genetic or acquired, generalized or partial. Acquired generalized l...

Background: Autoimmune polyglandular syndrome type 1 (APS-1) is а rare multisystem disorder due to mutations in the autoimmune regulator gene (AIRE). APS-1 usually is characterized by a triad of hypoparathyroidism, primary adrenal insufficiency (PAI) and chronic mucocutaneous candidiasis. In the absence of the classic triad, the diagnosis becomes obscure and is often delayed.Case presentation: We report a 12 years ol...

Introduction: Noonan syndrome-Neurofibromatosis type 1 (NSNF) is a genetic disorder characterized with clinical features of both Noonan syndrome (NS) and neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1). Recombinant human growth hormone (rhGH) has been widely used in NS patients as well as in some patients with NF1 but there are only a few published cases of rhGH treated NSNF patients. We report a patient with NSNF with short stature who started rhGH treatment with subsequent p...

Background: Genetic causes of central precocious puberty (CPP) has been increasingly recognized, extending our knowledge of the triggering factors of human pubertal timing. Distinct etiologies remain to be elucidated in sporadic and familial cases. Methyl-CpG-binding protein 2 (MECP2) is a chromatin-associated protein that can activate or repress gene transcription, playing a role in neuronal maturation. It is encoded by MECP2 gene located at chromoso...

Background: Bone involvement is described as a relevant sign in patients suffering Gaucher disease (GD).Objective and hypotheses: To analyze the long-term effect of enzyme replacement therapy on bone mineral density, a retrospective observational study was conducted in a cohort of 34 GD pediatric patients (14 males, 20 females, median age 11.3 years).Method: Lumbar spine (LS) (L2–L4, N: 34) and total body (TB) (N: 24) bone min...

Background: Although isolated GH deficiency (IGHD) is one of the most frequent causes of postnatal proportional undergrowth, up to 85–90% of IGHD cases are still classified as idiopathic. On the other hand, previous reports identified up to 40 different GH1 proximal promoter haplotypes, some of which show hypomorphic effects, significantly reducing GH1 expression levels.Objective and hypotheses: To investigate the frequency of ...