ESPE Abstracts

Background: The increasing incidence of obesity is a serious global public health challenge. Endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) are exogenous chemicals that interfere with the endocrine system, including adipose tissue. Increasing evidence from epidemiological, animal, and in vitro studies shows that EDCs, in particular bisphenol A (BPA) and phthalates (e.g. di-ethyl-hexyl-phthalate, DEHP), can affect body weight, adipogenesis and circulating lipid profile,...

Background: Over the past several decades, the age of pubertal onset in girls has shifted downward worldwide. Several factors including genetic predisposition, psychosocial and socio-economic conditions, diet and ethnicity may have contributed to this phenomenon. Epidemiological and animal studies have shown that the exposure to BPA and DEHP may be associated with early onset of puberty in girls.Objective: To investigate...

Background: Laboratory evaluation is crucial for accurate assessment of patients with endocrine disorders. When clinical picture is in obvious contradiction with laboratory results, one should suspect and prove analytical interference.Case presentation: a 6.7-year-old girl presented with sexual and axillary hair accompanied by adult-type body odor. She was tall (height SDS 2.6), with no other signs of virilisation and no...

Background: The increasing incidence of obesity is a global public health challenge. Although energy imbalance is the major cause of obesity, evidence suggests that other risk factors such as exposure to endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs) may contribute to the development of obesity. Early life exposure to obesogens may result in a higher risk of developing obesity. Among the chemicals suspected to have obesogenic effects, bisphenol A (BPA) and phthalates are under worldwid...

Background: Over the past several decades, the age of pubertal onset in girls has shifted downward worldwide. Exposure to endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) during critical windows of development may play a role in this trend. Epidemiological and animal studies showed that exposure to phthalates and BPA could be associated with earlier puberty onset in girls.Objective: To investigate the association between the exposure to BPA, DEHP’s metabolites...

HMGB1 is a small-protein which reflects both inflammation and insulin-sensitivity. Inflammation and insulin-resistance are features of PCOS. IL-6 is important for ovarian function and can contribute to insulin-resistance. IGFBP-2 behaves like an acute-phase protein and is increased in chronic inflammation. It is also involved in the glucose-metabolism regulation and IGFBP-2 overexpression plays a protective role against insulin-resistance. Insulin functions as a co-gonadotropi...

Introduction: Pituitary stalk thickening (PST) is a rare condition in pediatric patients. As there are few studies published in pediatric population, the definition has been difficult to establish. The etiologies involved in PST can be divided in neoplastic, congenital, inflammatory/infectious or autoimmune diseases. In children the most frequent causes are neoplastic, followed by congenital lesions. The inflammatory/infectious and autoimmune diseases are rare...

Background: Growth hormone (GH) treatment is indicated for children who are born small for gestational age (SGA) and fail to achieve sufficient catch-up growth during infancy and remain short throughout childhood.Aims: To evaluate the effect of GH treatment in a large, multicentric, Portuguese SGA children cohort and to analyze for correlation between GH treatment response and clinical factors.<str...

Type 1 diabetes (T1DM) in childhood is a highly prevalent disease, with incidence oscillating around 17.6/100000. However, incidence is higher in some communities (25.5/100,000), as it is in the case that concerns us. Diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA) is a complication usually recorded in 25–40% of cases but has been as high as 55% in studies of children under 5 years old. (T1DM) is an associated autoimmune disease to other precursor autoimmune pathologies.<p class="abstext...

Background: Vitamin D is a pleiotropic hormone the deficiency of which is related with extraskeletal manifestations such as insulin resistance and cardiovascular risk disease.Objective and hypotheses: To investigate the levels of VitaminD in a sample of children with obesity and to evaluate the relationship between carbohydrate metabolism and metabolic syndrome (MS).Method: In this prospective cross-sectional study, 189 children ag...