ESPE Abstracts

Papillary thyroid cancer (PTC) is the most common thyroid tumor in childhood and adolescence. Most of these patients are referred with locally advanced and/or distant disease at the moment of diagnosis. Whenever is possible, these patients should be offered a total thyroidectomy and radioiodine remnant ablation. However, this approach is not always possible to perform, becoming these tumors as unresectable. These critical cases could benefit from the neoadjuvant treatment with...

Background: Recent work revealed two pathways in androgen biosynthesis, namely the classic and an alternative, the backdoor pathway. In this alternative pathway dihydrotestosterone is produced from 17-hydroxyprogesterone without the intermediacy of testosterone using mostly enzymes that are specific to the backdoor path. In the human ovary, regulation of androgen production plays a crucial role in normal physiology and in pathologies such as the polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS...

Congenital hyperinsulinism (CHI) is a life-threatening disease and manifests in the majority of cases in the first days after birth. Based on the distribution of affected cells, focal CHI forms are distinguished from diffuse CHI forms. Focal forms occur in most cases due to a paternally inherited heterozygous mutation in a subunit of an ATP sensitive potassium channel (ABCC8, KCNJ11). Within the diagnostic setting, focal forms can be visualized by 18F DOPA PET scan, as a marke...

Background: GH has a strong positive influence on bone stimulating both bone elongation and increase in size by enhancing the accrual of trabecular and cortical bone up to the attainment of peak bone mass in young adult.Aim of the study: We compared the effect of two different GH dosages on statural growth and bone geometry in two groups of GH-deficient children at final height. Data has been collected retrospectively from 1994 to 2013.<p class="abst...

Cushing’s disease (CD) is defined as hypercortisolism secondary to an adrenocorticotropin (ACTH) secreting pituitary adenoma. It is rare in the pediatric age and early diagnosis and treatment are important to prevent long-term complications. In the diagnostic workup, bilateral inferior petrosal sinus sampling (BIPSS) of ACTH after corticotropin-releasing hormone (CRH) stimulation is the gold standard in the differential diagnosis of ACTH-dependent hypercortisolism. We re...

Background: There is increasing interest in vitamin D nutrition during pregnancy because of widespread reports of a high prevalence of low vitamin D status in pregnant women in high-latitude areas. It has been related to adverse events in mother and child. Neonates present a greater risk of hypocalcaemia, rickets and a higher incidence of infections during the 1st year of life.Objective and hypotheses: Real situation of pregnant women and newborn in rela...

Background: In children, papillary thyroid cancer (PTC) is generally sporadic and may, less frequently, be part of an undiagnosed hereditary tumor predisposition syndrome (HTPS). Somatic molecular testing is useful to understand tumor etiology and behavior, predict prognosis, and possibly guide development of novel treatment strategies. RET/PTC fusions were found to be associated with an increased risk of invasive disease. The aims of our study were to analyze...

Growth Hormone insensitivity (GHI) is characterized by short stature, GH resistance and IGF-1 deficiency. Classical GHI includes defects in the GH receptor and other genetic abnormalities downstream the GH cascade. Various short stature syndromes have phenotypes that overlap with GHI. This report discusses two cases of nonclassical GHI. Patient 1 is a boy with STAT3 gain-of-function syndrome (STAT3 GOF), characterized by immune dysregulation and growth failure. He developed ea...

Background: GL1I2 encodes a zinc-finger transcription factor expressed in the developing hypothalamus and in Rathke's pouch, the embryonic precursor of the pituitary gland. Pathogenic GL1I2 variants have been implicated in the etiology of the broad clinical spectrum of congenital hypopituitarism (CHY): holoprosencephaly, midline facial abnormalities, Culler-Jones syndrome, combined pituitary hormone-deficiency (CPHD) and isolated GH-defi...

Background: The persistent Müllerian duct syndrome (PMDS) is a rare 46-XY disorder of sex development, characterized by the persistence of Müllerian derivatives (uterus, Fallopian tubes) in otherwise normally virilised males. The condition is transmitted as a recessive autosomal trait and is caused in most cases by a defect in either the anti-Müllerian hormone (AMH) or the AMH type-II receptor (AMHR-II) genes.Case report: We present a 9 ye...