ESPE Abstracts

Background: Autoimmune primary adrenal insufficiency (PAI) is a rare and life-threatening disease. Standard replacement therapy consists of multiple daily doses of hydrocortisone combined with fludrocortisone. A recent Endocrine Society guideline argued against hormonal monitoring of glucocorticoid replacement. However, about 50% of adolescents and young adults (AYAs) with chronic diseases are non-adherent to their prescribed treatment regimens. Pervasive nonadherence places p...

Thyroid dysgenesis (TD) is the most common cause of congenital hypothyroidism in iodine sufficient regions. TD includes a broad spectrum of developmental anomalies varying from absence of thyroid (athyreosis) to an abnormally located thyroid (ectopy), small (hypoplasia) or asymmetric thyroid. Thyroid dysgenesis is usually sporadic, but up to 2% of cases is familial. Genetics of TD is complex and advances in developmental biology over the past two decades revealed monogenetic f...

Background: Very early onset diabetes mellitus (neonatal diabetes mellitus (NDM)) seems to be unrelated to autoimmunity in most instances. A number of conditions are associated with NDM, some of which have been elucidated at the molecular level. Among these, the recently elucidated mutations in the KCNJ11 and ABCC8 genes, encoding the Kir6.2 and SUR1 subunit of the pancreatic KATP channel involved in regulation of insulin secretion, account for one...

Background: An ENDO-ERN initiative was launched which was endorsed by the European Society for Pediatric Endocrinology and the European Society for Endocrinology with 22 participants from the ENDO-ERN and the two societies. The aim was to update the practice guidelines for the diagnosis and management of congenital hypothyroidism (CH). A systematic literature search was conducted to identify key articles on neonatal screening, diagnosis and management of prima...

Introduction: Brain tumors are the most common solid neoplasm in children, and treatment often includes high-dose irradiation of the central nervous system (CNS). Although not universal, growth hormone deficiency (GHD) is a very common endocrine late effect after CNS irradiation in childhood. The consequences of GHD in adults are many e.g., reduced bone mineral density, fatigue, decreased lean body mass and adiposity, which implies that adults with severe GHD ...

Pediatric overweight and obesity are also an issue in children and adolescents with type 1 diabetes (T1D). Body Mass Index (BMI) is an accurate and widely used clinical method for assessing childhood obesity.Objective: To analyze the BMI-standard deviation scores (SDS) in Bulgarian children and adolescents with T1D and its relationship with age, gender, type of insulin treatment, and HbAlc.Materials and Met...

Pro-opiomelanocortin (POMC) and the melanocortin-4-receptor (MC4R) are playing a key role within the leptin-melanocortin-pathway and thereby for satiety regulation. Mutations within these genes are leading to hyperphagia and early-onset obesity. However, observations of cardiac abnormalities including left ventricular dilatation and reduced contractibility in the MC4R knockout mouse model and reports about a reduced blood pressure in human MC4R variant carriers, led us to inve...

Treatment of short stature in children born small for gestational age (SGA) requires daily growth hormone (GH) injections that can be burdensome for patients and caregivers. Once-weekly somapacitan is a long-acting GH in phase 3 development for replacement therapy in children with GH deficiency. We report the 52-week results of the first phase 2, multinational, randomised, open-label, controlled, dose-finding trial (NCT03878446) investigating efficacy and safety of somapacitan...

Background: X-linked hypophosphatemia (XLH) is a rare genetic disorder of phosphate metabolism caused by mutations in the PHEX gene. XLH patients exhibit short stature and skeletal deformities, which are caused by defective bone mineralization site leading to increased porosity and decreased matrix stiffness. Bone mineral density measurements have been shown to be insensitive to the cumulative bone alterations. The velocity of the first arriving signal (vFAS) ...

Background: The initiation of puberty is dependent upon an augmentation of gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) secretion from the hypothalamus. Development of the GnRH neuroendocrine network in embryonic life depends on coordinated migration of neurons from the vomeronasal organ in the nose to the forebrain. We have previously demonstrated that dysregulation in GnRH neuronal migration leads to delayed pubertal onset. Late puberty affects up to 2% of the ...