ESPE Abstracts

The epidemic spread of obesity in children has triggered the commitment of scientific research, which has allowed us to understand its genetic basis; the different forms of genetic obesity share common clinical aspects, making it difficult to achieve a molecular diagnosis based only on our clinical suspicion. We report a female patient presented with neonatal hypotonia, hyperphagia and early onset excessive weight gain, strabismus and high hypermetropia. Regarding her neurodev...

Obesity, with its complications, emerges as a major contributor to the global health burden becoming pandemic. It's an extremely complex disorder resulting of interaction of biological, social and behavioural factors that cause increase in food intake and reduction in energy expenditure. Although few monogenic forms and indeed several susceptibility loci have been described, the molecular basis underlying early onset obesity remain largely unknown. GWAS revealed consistent...

We report a pediatric patient with an undiagnosed and complex medical manifestation who was shown to have paternal isodisomy at chromosome 7. Our case is a female patient presented for increasing overweight, parotid hemangioma and gastroesophageal reflux with laryngomalacia. She was born at 35+4 weeks of gestation and her birth weight, length and occipitofrontal circumference (OFC) were 2500 g, 49 cm and 33 cm, respectively. At the time of our visit she was 16 months old, ...

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: For young adults with type 1 diabetes, transition from a paediatric setting to an adult care setting is a vulnerable period with risks for gaps in care. These emerging adults need to develop skills for managing their diabetes yet it is often challenging to cover all anticipatory guidance topics related to type 1 diabetes. In the context of a structured transition clinic, we hypothesized that by leveraging teens’ facility with technology and marketing/design we...

Background and aim: Congenital growth hormone deficiency (cGHD) is a rare but life-threatening condition whose diagnosis is challenging in the absence of reliable reference values, both in healthy neonates and in preterm ones. We recently estimated GH reference interval in 1036 healthy, at-term newborns (HN) form dried blood spot samples using a previously validated analytical method.Aim: of this study is to provide valu...

Introduction: Hypercalcaemia is an uncommon electrolyte disorder, frequently discovered incidentally based on routine blood chemistry results.Case report: A 14-year-old adolescent was admitted to the Endocrinology Department due to obesity, gait and depression. His weight had been gradually increasing over the previous 2 years, and on admission his BMI was 31.5 kg/m2. The pain in his legs started a year ago, but worsened progressively and in t...

Introduction: Preclinical models demonstrated that Angiopoietin-like protein 4 (ANGPTL-4) regulates lipid metabolism and affects energy homeostasis. However, no data exist regarding its involvement in childhood and adolescence, periods of life with important metabolic changes.Objectives: We aimed to investigate circulating levels of ANGPTL-4 in children and adolescents and its relationship with gender, puberty and obesit...

Introduction: The diagnosis of GHD requires the coexistence of anamnestic, auxological and laboratory data. The latter are burdened by the poor accuracy and adverse effects of the stimulation tests. A recent european audit (Horm Res Paediatr 2019;92(3): 150-156) on GH diagnostic reported as preferred tests in Italy Insulin tolerance test (ITT), glucagon, clonidine, arginine and Arg-GHRH. We conducted a survey to explore which of them are most used in It...

Introduction: Pituitary gigantism is caused by a somatotroph pituitary tumor that occurs before epiphyseal closure and is associated with increased morbidity due to the systemic effects of chronic hormonal excess. It is an extremely rare disease, with an estimated incidence of 8 per million person-years. Therapeutic modalities for pituitary gigantism are the same as those for acromegaly and include surgery, medication and radiation. Medical treatment plays an ...