ESPE Abstracts

Background: The assessment of bone age increments is important when monitoring treatment in many conditions in pediatric endocrinology. However, manual rating suffers from significant rater variability. Automated bone age assessment could provide increased precision, and also assess increments of bone health index (BHI) from the same X-rays.Objective and hypotheses: To assess the precision of automated assessment of increments of bone age and BHI.<p ...

Background: Adult height prediction (AHP) based on bone age appears as an incomplete procedure – it does not reveal the path from the present to the end-point. Growth charts offer little help in this respect because they average over children with different age of growth spurt (AGS).Objective and hypotheses: To extend AHP by also forecasting AGS and the entire height and velocity trajectories until adulthood and displaying this in a growth chart mad...

Purpose: To track the effects of growth hormone on bone geometry and maturation in children with isolated growth hormone deficiency (GHD).Methods: 299 left hand X-rays from 77 short prepubertal children (54 boys and 23 girls) with isolated GHD were analysed for changes in metacarpal thickness, width, length, medullary diameter, the Bone Health Index (BHI) and bone age (BA) from one year preceding until four years after s...

Introduction: Treatment of patients with VSD (Variation of Sex Development), in particular severe hypospadias, is associated with high rate of post-operative complications using current surgical procedures. This leads to a high rate of re-operation in an already emotionally complicated situation. We improved the tissue engineered acellular tubular collagen scaffolds that showed promising results in the rabbit model to implant it to a dog model. This FDA approved new version ac...

Background: Pharmacologic options for treatment of osteolytic diseases especially in children are limited. Although not licensed for use, denosumab, a fully humanized antibody to RANKL, is used in children and shows good effects. Among others, one indication are giant cell tumors of the bone. Yet, there are reports of severe hypercalcemia after stop of denosumab, an adverse effect which is rarely seen in adults.Case reports: Four patients, aged 6, 13 and...

Introduction: Androgens are essential for the development of male sex characteristics. Testosterone (T) production from androstenedione (A) by the Hydroxysteroid 17-Beta Dehydrogenase 3 (HSD17B3) in gonadal Leydig cells triggers the differentiation of the Wolffian ducts into epididymis, vas deferens, seminal vesicles and the prostate. Shortly after, the virilisation of the external male genitalia starts through the conversion of T into dihydrotestosterone (DHT...

Background: Somapacitan is a reversible albumin-binding growth hormone (GH) derivative in clinical development for once-weekly administration in patients with GH deficiency (GHD). Clinical data in healthy subjects, and adults and children with GHD showed that once-weekly somapacitan injections were well tolerated with no clinically significant safety or local tolerability issues. A sustained dose-dependent IGF-I response supports a once-weekly treatment regimen.<p class="a...

Background: Individuals born with a 45,X/46,XY karyotype can present with diverging phenotypes from normal male, Turner-like to ambiguous genitalia, the latter classically being called mixed gonadal dysgenesis. No correlation between phenotype and degree of mosaicisms in the karyotype could be ascertained so far, making clinical management of these patients difficult.Objective: To understand, if androgen action through the androgen receptor (AR) is compr...

Background: Actual surgical procedures for the treatment of patients with VSD (Variation of Sex Development), in particular severe hypospadias, are associated with frequent post-operative complications.Objective and hypotheses: Tissue engineered collagen tubes are a promising alternative.Method: We elaborated a new, two layered, collagen based tube that can be sutured. Mechanical testing proved a better resistance of those tubes co...

Background: Prediction of adult height is a standard procedure in pediatric endocrinology, but it is associated with considerable interrater variability.Objective and hypotheses: To compare the new adult height prediction (PAH) method by automated bone age determination (BoneXpert™) with the conventional PAH method by Bayley Pinneau (BP) based on bone age determination according to Greulich & Pyle. Furthermore, to assess measures of bone health ...