ESPE Abstracts

Background: Children born small for gestational age (SGA) are predisposed to metabolic abnormalities. While the therapeutic benefit of recombinant human growth hormone (rhGH) therapy in improving height is widely recognised, it can affect carbohydrate metabolism, potentially inducing diabetes.Objective and hypotheses: This ongoing, prospective study aims to evaluate the long-term safety and efficacy of Omnitrope® (somatropin) in children ...

Background: Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA) is characterised by progressive muscle weakness, resulting from loss of anterior horn cells in the spinal cord and the brain stem nuclei. Survival motor neuron levels (SMN) are reduced due to mutations in the SMN1 gene. SMN function has been implicated in poor bone health. SMA is classified according to age of onset and clinical course accordingly: type 0 (prenatal), type 1 (onset <6 months, severe, never sit unsupported), type 2 (...

Background: Homozygous mutations in STAT5B result in GH insensitivity and immune dysfunction. Heterozygous dominant negative mutations have not been described.Aims and objectives: To characterize genomic STAT5B DNA in two families exhibiting short stature.Methods: Sanger sequencing of STAT5B from genomic DNA. Mutant STAT5B constructs were expressed in HEK293 cells.Results: ...

Background: Mauriac syndrome (MS) classically involves hepatomegaly (hepatic glycogenosis), growth impairment and cushingoid features in a patient with poorly controlled type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM). The typical age of presentation is adolescence. With the advent of improved insulin regimens, MS has seen less frequently. However, new cases appear each year in medical literature.Clinical case: We report the case of a 9 years and 9 months of age male, w...

Background: One of the limiting factors in adherence to GH therapy, is satisfaction with the administration device used.Objective and hypotheses: With the emergence of a new biosmiliar GH (BGH) administration device, we will assess the simplicity, ease of use, management and pain perceived by the patients.Method: Prospective through survey caregivers and children treated with BGH at least for 6 months. Signed informed consent was r...

Background: FPLD2 results from autosomal dominant mutations in the LMNA gene. The physical appearance develops through adolescence where subcutaneous fat deposits of the limbs, trunk, buttocks and legs do not develop resulting in a muscular appearance. The metabolic phenotype includes elevations in triglyceride concentrations and hepatosteatosis with resultant insulin resistance. Co-morbidities that may manifest during young adulthood include early-onset diabe...

Dysosteosclerosis (DOS) is a rare form of dense bone disease and, short stature, recurrent fractures, optic atrophy, cranial nerve palsy, developmental delay, flattened fingernails, skin related complications, and failure of tooth eruption are the characteristic features of the disease (MIM %224300). Irregular osteosclerosis, flattened diffusely dense vertebral bodies, sclerotic skull, radiolucent sub-metaphyseal portions of the long tubular bones with sclerotic diaphysis are ...

Background: Obesity is characterized by an increase in fat mass caused by an increase in adipocyte number and adipocyte size and is often associated with adipose tissue (AT) dysfunction contributing to metabolic impairment. It is suspected that adipocyte progenitor cells play an important role during healthy and obesity-related AT expansion. Studies in adults showed that the stroma vascular fraction (SVF) of AT is composed of different progenitor cell subpopul...

Background: Based on growth screening rules, severe short stature (i.e. height SDS less than -3), at the age of more than 3 years, warrants diagnostic evaluation in specialized health care. In the absence of apparent underlying cause, targeted and eventually untargeted genetic studies have been proposed. However, the etiology of short stature at the severe end of the spectrum is poorly characterized.Methods: We ...

Background and Objective: Obesity is known to affect pubertal timing. However, existing data are still controversial, observing either delayed or accelerated pubertal onset, especially among boys. Herein, we evaluated pubertal milestones and underlying hormonal changes between lean and obese children.Material and Methods: We examined 13,484 events from 4,855 lean (BMI SDS <1.28) and 1,983 obese (BMI SDS > 1.88) c...