ESPE Abstracts

Background and Aim: A substantial proportion of SGA patients have a syndrome underlying their growth restriction. Most SGA cohorts comprise both syndromic (S-SGA) and non-syndromic patients (nonS-SGA) impeding delineation of the recombinant human growth hormone (rhGH) response. We present a detailed characterization of the Belgian SGA cohort and analyze rhGH response based on adult height (AH).Patients & Methods: Cli...

Background: Reaching a definitive diagnosis in individuals with XY DSD is challenging and the time taken to reach a diagnosis is an important clinical benchmark that has not been sufficiently explored in this group of conditions.Objective: To evaluate the diagnostic process with a focus on the time to diagnosis in children with XY DSD reported via the e-reporting platform (e-REC) of the European Registries for Rare Endoc...

Background: Hypospadias affects approximately 1/200 newborn males. Based on the testicular dysgenesis syndrome hypothesis, some may be suspected of having persistent testicular dysfunction later in life. Few clinical data currently support this hypothesis.Methods: Cross-sectional assessment of hypospadias cases (n = 193) and controls (n = 50), aged 16-21 years, recruited at Ghent University Hospital and...

Introduction: The diagnosis and treatment of patients with rare diseases is often difficult as most clinicians do not encounter them. Therefore, centralization and collaboration between centers of expertise is necessary. European Reference Networks (ERN’s) such as RareEndoERN provide a platform for this, with one of its main thematic groups having a specific focus on rare growth and obesity disorders. Genetic obesity encompasses a heterogeneous group of c...

X-linked hypophosphatemia (XLH, MIM 307800) is a rare hereditary disorder of bone metabolism characterized by growth impairment, leading to bone deformities and short stature and beside others to muscle function deficits. XLH is caused by defect of endopeptidase PHEX leading to high levels of FGF-23 and thereby renal phosphate wasting. While conventional treatment includes substitution of phosphate and 1-25 OH-Vitamin D, now a treatment with a FGF-23 antibody (burosumab) is av...

Background/Aim: Parents wanting to predict adult height (AH) often resort to the old practice of doubling a boy’s height at age 2 years or a girl’s height at 18 months. We coined this the ’Grandma prediction’ (GMP1). It provides predictions with mean absolute error (MAE) 5.9 and 5.2, standard deviations of residuals (sdRES) 4.1 and 3.6, and Pearson correlation r=0.68 and 0.67 for boys and girls, respectively. The recent sophist...

Background/Aim: The trade-off theory claims that a resource (calorie) stored in adipose tissue cannot be used for longitudinal growth, and a calorie used for growth will not be stored as fat.Methods: Out of 2339 children with longitudinal heights and weights (birth to adulthood) from the GrowUp1990 Gothenburg cohort, 1993 (996 girls) were analyzed. For everyone we calculated Energy Trade-Off Score: ETOS = at early adulth...

Introduction: People’s weight-related behaviors may be influenced by their personal social network (SN), notably via family and friends’ behavioral modelling and motivational social support (SS).Objective: We examined the cross-sectional relation between social network-based social support (SS) and weight-related outcomes among adolescents ina pilot study within the QUALITY cohort, a longitudinal study investigating the natural...

Background: Hypospadias is a common malformation of male external genitalia, resulting in urethral displacement with different severity. Male genital development occurs during fetal development when also the brain is developing rapidly. Genital development is dependent on androgen effect, and androgens also have impact on gender development. We here explore whether hypospadias are associated with variation in other aspects of sex typical development.<p c...

Background: Prader-Willi Syndrome (PWS) is a complex genetic disorder characterised by developmental and growth abnormalities, insatiable appetite, and excessive eating (hyperphagia). Hyperphagia is thought to be driven by supraphysiological levels of the appetite stimulating hormone ghrelin; however, the underlying causes of hyperghrelinaemia in PWS are currently unknown. Recently, ghrelin-reactive autoantibodies (isotype IgG) were identified in non-genetic obesity and were f...