ESPE Abstracts

Background: Obesity in childhood and adolescence represents a major health problem of our century and accounts for a significant increase in morbidity and mortality in adulthood. In Greece, more than 35% of children and adolescents are currently overweight or obese.Objective and hypotheses: To develop a National e-Health System for General Pediatricians and General Practitioners for the prevention and management of overweight and obesity. Specific aims i...

Background: A secular trend towards earlier menarche has been observed.Objective and hypotheses: The correlation of age at menarche with the BMI as well as the maternal age at menarche and their BMI.Method: This is a cross-sectional study conducted from October 2012–December 2013. A pre-selected, representative elementary and high school cohort was derived, using stratification and PPS methodology. Parents responded to questio...

Background: Individuals with classic congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH) are treated postnatally with glucocorticoids. Earlier research with animals and other disorders with excess GC exposure implicate that GCs can influence memory. Deficits in working memory can be seen already during childhood in children with classic CAH.Objective: We tested the hypothesis that adult individuals with classic CAH show impaired cognitive functions.<p class="abstex...

Background: In order to prevent virilization in CAH female fetuses, physicians have during the last thirty years used the synthetic glucocorticoid dexamethasone (DEX) as a therapeutic approach administered during early pregnancy. Due to the fact that treatment has to be started before the genotype of the fetus is known, seven out of eight treated fetuses will be subjected to high doses of DEX during early embryogenesis without benefit. Therefore, negative side effects cannot b...

Objective: Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia (CAH) requires life-long replacement of cortisol. However, this long-term GC-treatment could change the developmental trajectory of the brain and predispose patients to problems with cognition and mood regulation. Previously, we have found impairments in working memory in patients with CAH, as well as alterations in brain structure in regions of the central executive network (CEN). These changes could be associated wit...

Objective: Oral hydrocortisone medication for Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia (CAH) could lead to suboptimal blood cortisol levels throughout the day. In addition, the HPA-axis is rendered inflexible in patients. Cortisol is crucially involved in the stress response as well as in generating and regulating emotional responses to stimuli. Sub-optimal cortisol levels, in combination with a less flexible HPA-axis, could therefore lead to problems with emotion regul...

Objective: Young women with Turner syndrome are known to be especially at risk for lost of follow-up. Recent literature indicates that there are disparities regarding transition readiness between different chronic conditions. To assess differences in transition readiness might be crucial for identifying special needs in specific patient cohorts when preparing for transfer to adult care. Our hypothesis was, that young women with Turner syndrome would score lowe...

Background: A one-month-old girl was referred to our unit for osteogenesis imperfecta (OI). She was the first child of non consanguineous parents. The father had no history of fracture. The mother, 28 years-old, presented with a severe OI, short adult height (140 cm), moderate scoliosis. She had more than 20 limb fractures, no vertebral fracture and bowing limbs without need of surgery. She received Bisphosphonates during 3 years until 12 years of age. Then sh...

Case description: A 14-year old boy with autoimmune hepatitis who was on long term oral steroids for 10 years, presented with acute onset lower back pain without preceding trauma. Lumbar spine radiograph showed severe osteopenia and compression fractures of vertebrae T12 to L1. Bone mineral density T-score at the lumbar region was −4.9. Biochemically, there was hypocalcaemia and severe hypophosphataemia with adjusted calcium 2.03 (2.20–2.65) mmol/l and phosphate 0.8...

Background: Development of cystic fibrosis–related diabetes (CFRD) is associated with worse pulmonary function, poorer nutritional status, more chest infections and increased mortality. In cystic fibrosis (CF) patients, abnormality of the 1 hour glucose during Glucose Tolerance test (GTT) is reported to be a better predictor of early CFRD and is associated with decline in pulmonary function compared to the 2-hour glucose level during GTT. We report a case series of 4 pati...