ESPE Abstracts

Background: Raised free thyroxine levels in blood results are not unusual in adults. This may be due to protein or drug interference with laboratory assays. However this phenomenon can occur in children depending on the assay method used.Case: An 8-year-old boy with a strong family history of essential hypertension and raised BMI was admitted for fixation of a fracture of his right forearm after falling off a roundabout. Routine blood pressure monitoring...

Background: Assessment in childhood obesity includes looking for obesity syndromes. Dysmorphic features should guide investigations. When clinical signs are subtle, genetic investigations aide diagnosis. A case (S) of progressive childhood obesity is described. He was found to have a pathogenic GNAS mutation which was also present in his mother. Both mother and son had a similar phenotype and did not have hypocalcaemia or PTH resistance described in pseudohypoparathyr...

Background: Thalassaemia patients are at risk of developing diabetes mellitus (DM) and pre-diabetes status predominantly due to iron overloading. The prevalence is 20–30% in adult patients. Age, serum ferritin, T2* magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the heart and pancreas volume has been found to be associated with DM. However, majority of the studies involved more adults than children.Objective and hypotheses: To establish the prevalence of glucos...

Background: Children born small for gestational age (SGA) are at increased risk of coronary heart disease and type 2 diabetes in adulthood, due to reprogramming of endocrine and metabolic functions. Dysregulation of specific miRNAs in response to genetic and environmental factors contribute to aberrant gene expression patterns underlying metabolic dysfunction.Objective and hypotheses: We aimed to identify miRNAs associated with increased risk of obesity ...

Background: Early age at menarche was associated with obesity, insulin resistance, metabolic syndrome, cardiovascular disease (CVD), and mortality in adulthood. Besides, a mother's age at menarche has been suggested to be a likely contributor to a daughter's early menarche. Therefore, this study aimed to determine whether a mother's earlier age at menarche is a risk factor for a daughter's early menarche, obesity, and short stature in young...

Objective: To investigate whether earlier mother’s age at menarche is a risk factor of daughter’s early menarche, obesity, and short stature in young Korean female.Research design and methods: We tested associations between mother’s age at menarche, mother’s adult body size and her daughter’s age at menarche, body size from the data of 6th Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (KNHANES VI) (2013–2015). We an...

Background: Diabetes education empowers children and adolescents with diabetes to acquire practical skills in problem-solving and goal-setting to improve self sufficiency. Our aim was to identify variables that have an the impact on diabetes control in terms of psychosocial wellbeing and glycosylated haemoglobin (HbA1c).Objectives and hypotheses: To compare the level of understanding & knowledge of diabetes between three groups of diabetic children. ...

Among the many complications of type 1 diabetes (T1D), hypoglycemia is an acute concern for children with T1D and their families. Moreover, fear of hypoglycemia is a common barrier to achieving glucose targets. Numerous advances in care have been made since the Diabetes Control and Complications Trial was published in 1993 in which lower HbA1c was associated with increasing risk of severe hypoglycemia. More recent data indicate that lower HbA1c (7% ISPAD target) can be ach...

Glucocorticoids (cortisol in humans, corticosterone in rodents) are critical regulators of energy metabolism and immunity. Their secretion by the adrenal gland follows a circadian pattern, with serum concentrations peaking before the active phase (day in humans, night in rodents). Synthetic glucocorticoids are the most potent anti-inflammatory agents known, and are widely used therapeutically, with >1% of the UK population holding a prescription long-term. However, frequen...

Background: The arrangement of beta cells within islets of Langerhans produces a gain-of-function in insulin release through the generation of rhythmic activity patterns. A privileged role for individual beta cells in orchestrating these responses has long-been suspected, but not directly examined.Objective and hypotheses: Identify and characterize a rare subpopulation of beta cells tasked with pacemaking insulin release.Method: Op...