ESPE Abstracts

NMDA (N-Methyl-D-aspartic acid) receptors have been shown to control the timing of sexual maturation in laboratory animals. Therefore, variants in genes impacting NMDA receptor signaling might be predicted to affect human puberty. We studied an extended family with extremely delayed puberty (menarche at 16.5 - 18 years for female family members and pubertal onset at 16 years for male family members). Exome sequencing revealed a rare missense variant (F900V) in DLG2, w...

Objective: Osteogenesis imperfecta is an inherited disorder characterised by bone fragility. Antiresorptive treatment with bisphosphonates is a well-established first line medical treatment in OI types III/IV. Nevertheless, there is no consensus on treatment modalities, like which bisphosphonate to use in which dose and when to initiate treatment. The objective of this work was to evaluate the therapeutic effect of a one-year treatment period with bisphosphona...

Introduction: Pituitary adenoma (PA) in childhood is a rare disease, accounting for 3 % of all intracranial paediatric neoplasm, and between 3 to 6% of all PA. There are only few large studies describing paediatric pituitary adenoma and even fewer studies with long-term outcome.Methods: In this retrospective study, clinical, biochemical and radiological parameters and outcome of paediatric patients (<16 years...

Background: The female gonadal axis is activated in mini-puberty and thereafter it is quiescent until puberty. We have shown that many girls with no clinical sign of puberty in the age group 1-6 yr. have a rather strong luteinizing hormone (LH) and follicle stimulating hormone (FSH) response to a gonadotropin releasing hormone (GnRH) test. However, stimulated LH and FSH values decreased in the age interval 1-6 yr and no LH/FSH values rose above 0.43. Serum est...

Objective: In patients with growth hormone deficiency (GHD), even in those with no major organic lesion, anterior pituitary height (APH) is reported decreased. Limitations in the evaluation of APH and changes according to pubertal status make its validity questionable. Recently, in a small scale study, pons ratio (PR) has been suggested as a more sensitive marker for evaluation of pituitary gland in GHD patients. The study aims to evaluate the validity of PR a...

Introduction: The prevalence of thyroid peroxidase antibody (anti-TPO) positivity is estimated to be around 3-4% in healthy children and is remarkably higher in children with type 1 diabetes (T1D). However, anti-TPO positivity in children with HLA-conferred susceptibility to T1D who are not yet diagnosed with T1D, is not well studied. The aim of this study was to describe the prevalence of positive anti-TPO and its effect of thyroid function in children wi...

The CYP21A2 and the TNXB genes are highly homologous with their corresponding pseudogenes (CYP21A1P and TNXA), leading to frequent homologous recombination. The TNXB includes 43 exons, the mRNA encodes tenascin-X (TNX), an extracellular matrix glycoprotein, highly expressed in connective tissue.CAH patients with a "contiguous gene syndrome" comprising a deletion of both genes- CYP21A2 and TNXB have been described. Chimeric genes generated by larg...

Objectives: Diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA) is the leading cause of mortality in a type 1 diabetic mellitus (T1DM) in pediatric population. The prevalence of the DKA in the developed world ranges from 15% to 61% and in Croatia it is 33 to 36%. In the past few decades in Europe there have been no significant changes in the prevalence of DKA in patients with newly T1DM. In the previous preventive program known as the "Parma campaign", which was c...

Context: Turner syndrome (TS) predisposes to obesity and related disorders being a part of the metabolic syndrome. As TS population is at a higher risk of cardiovascular diseases research for laboratory markers of metabolic complications is ongoing. Based on our previous observation special significance is attributed to MMPs (matrix metalloproteinases), their inhibitors TIMPs and neurotrophic factors, such as BDNF (Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor) and GDNF (...

Introduction: Turner syndrome (TS) is a genetic condition which is reported to be associated with electrocardiogram (ECG) abnormalities, of which the rate-corrected QT interval (QTc) is the most common indicated deviation. Our objectives were to gain more insight in the prevalence of QTc-prolongation using both Bazett's and Hodge's correction formulas in patients with TS of all ages and to investigate whether QTc prolongation is more prevalent in patie...