ESPE Abstracts

During the COVID-19 pandemic, a significant increase in Central Precocious Puberty(CPP) has been observed worldwide. The reasons for this phenomenon are yet unclear. In order to evaluate if fear, stress and coping strategies used by children and parents when dealing with negative emotional situations and health issues might have acted as triggers for this phenomenon, we administered specific questionnaires to girls who had a diagnosis of CPP before and after the COVID-19 relat...

Achieving adequate glycaemic control in children with type 1 diabetes (T1D) is essential to reduce incidence and progression of microvascular and macrovascular complications. However, factors that influence glycaemic control remain to be understood. The present study aimed to evaluate clinical, personal, genetic and eating behaviour characteristics underlying glycaemic control in T1D. 325 T1D individuals aged 6 and 20 years and with at least 1 year of disease duration have bee...

Achondroplasia is a rare genetic condition caused by a recurrent pathogenetic variant in the FGFR3 gene resulting in short limb skeletal dysplasia. Due to the wide-ranging anomalies associated with achondroplasia (both peculiar clinical features and complications), a multidisciplinary team is often required for ongoing care, although the nature of specialists involved differs among countries. Despite a European consensus on principles for the management of achondropla...

Background: Central precocious puberty (CPP) is defined as the secondary sexual characteristics onset before 8 years of age in females and before 9 in males, due to premature activation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal axis. The underlying cause remains idiopathic in the great majority; based on the 2009 Consensus, 2% to 7% of girls who have onset of CPP between the ages of 6 and 8 years have unsuspected pathology and only 1% have a tumor such...

Background: Obesity is a persistent disorder that almost universally recurs following treatment, suggesting a disruption on central nervous system control over energy homeostasis. Recent literature suggests that hypothalamic inflammation may have an important role on obesity pathogenesis. This inflammatory reaction, which histologically appears as a reactive gliosis, may be detected using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and has just been shown in rodent models and adults.</p...

Background: The initial L-T4 dose currently recommended in the treatment of congenital hypothyroidism (CH) is 10–15 mcg/kg per day.Objective and hypotheses: We designed a multicenter randomized trial to evaluate the effects of different starting doses of L-T4 within the range 10–15 mcg/kg per day on neurocognitive development in children with CH.Method: Seventy-two children with CH diagnosed by neonatal screening were enr...

Body Mass Index (BMI) has a high association with body fat percentage and direct association with a higher degree of comorbidities. Categorizing patients only by the degree of obesity, as has been done over time, restricts the possibility of detecting and giving timely treatment to other aspects. The Edmonton Obesity Staging System for Pediatrics (EOSS-P) has been proposed as a tool to categorize obesity not only by BMI, but also by assessing metabolic complications, functiona...

Introduction: About 25% of children and adolescents with Type 1 Diabetes (T1D) have one or more associated autoimmune conditions. Although Graves' disease (GD) rarely occurs, considering the potential severity of manifestations, an early diagnosis and appropriate treatment are essential. The first line treatment is methimazole, whose use is not free from side effects; therefore, it is important to start with the most appropriate dosage.<p class="abste...

Background: Hypergonadotropic hypogonadism (HH) is an hallmark of Turner Syndrome (TS) and hormone replacement therapy (HRT) is often required for pubertal induction; this retrospective study highlights the pituitary-gonadal axis during infancy (<5 years), childhood (5–10.9 years) and adolescence (> 11 years) in a cohort of TS patients enrolled between February 1999 to March 2023. Our aim is to underline the diagnostic role of Gonadotropins as a ma...

Introduction: Anemia in children is still quite common, sometimes it is a secondary symptom of another rare disorder. Rendu-Osler-Weber disease, a genetically determined haemorrhagic diathesis, is characterized by the occurrence of vascular malformations leading to bleeding from the nose, skin and mucous membranes and to various internal organs. Diagnosis facilitates the occurrence of the disease in relatives of the first degree, however, due to the progressive nature of vascu...