ESPE Abstracts

Background/Aims: Cryptorchidism or undescended testis is a prevalent congenital urogenital condition affecting male newborns with an incidence rate ranging from 1.0 to 4.6%. Mouse models have implicated INSL3 and its receptor RXFP2 (formerly known as GREAT or LGR8) in the development of the condition. RXFP2 acts as a G protein-coupled receptor that triggers the generation of cAMP by binding INSL3. But despite the established role in testicular descent, so far ...

Background: Prediction models demonstrate potential in predicting growth in patients receiving recombinant human growth hormone (r-hGH) for growth disorders. However, considerable information from patients is needed to calculate a predicted growth curve. The curve matching technique only requires height data. This technique identifies growth curves that are similar (matched) among real-world patients within a database. The growth curves of these ‘matched...

Poor adherence to long-term growth hormone (GH) treatment can lead to suboptimal clinical outcomes. The easypod™ connect eHealth platform enables healthcare professionals to obtain an accurate picture of real-world adherence by allowing patients to transmit adherence data to a database. Our aims were to assess adherence to r-hGH (Saizen, Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany) treatment with the easypod connect platform in children from treatment start to 48 months and to investi...

Background: 46,XY patients with 5α-reductase deficiency (5-ARD), reared from birth as girls, are reported to self-reassign as boys subsequent to a masculinizing puberty; whether this holds true in cases of early orchidectomy is less well documented.Objective and hypotheses: Prepubertal orchidectomy reduces the likelihood of gender self-reassignment.Method: Presentation, management and outcome of two siblings with 5-ARD with na...

Background: Obese children come from families where either one or both parents are obese, suggesting obesity is the result of exposure to detrimental environment.Objective and hypotheses: We propose that inherited insulin resistance is the core which promotes development of obesity and that allergic airway obstruction stalls development of obesity, while peptic gastritis promotes over-eating by confounding portion control.Method: W...

Introduction: Ghrelin binds to its receptor GHSR1A, encoded by GHSR, on somatotrophs of the pituitary. Growth hormone (GH) secretion is enhanced by ghrelin binding as well as the receptor’s constitutive activity. Results from in vitro experiments, knock-out mice, and GWAS suggest that heterozygous loss-of-function of GHSR may be associated with short stature, but observations in case studies are equivocal. We aimed to better ch...

Background: Prader–Willi syndrome (PWS) is characterized by a switch in early childhood from failure to thrive to excessive weight gain and hyperphagia with impaired satiety. The underlying mechanism for this switch may involve hyperghrelinemia, but only poor data exists regarding levels of acylated ghrelin (AG), unacylated ghrelin (UAG), and the AG/UAG ratio in PWS.Objective and hypotheses: To investigate plasma levels of AG and UAG in PWS, compare...

Background: Prader Willi Syndrome (PWS) patients under treatment with growth hormone (GH) have a better body composition and cognitive performance than untreated patients. The 2013 guideline recommended to start this treatment as soon as possible, for that reason 14 toddlers have been included in our center. Classically a 25% decrease in the caloric intake of PWS patients has been recommended to avoid obesity. However, from clinical practice observation, w...

Background: Age at onset of puberty exhibits a remarkable variation mirroring nutritional, environmental, socioeconomic and genetic factors. While large genome-wide association studies identified more than hundred genetic loci associated with age at menarche in girls, knowledge on loci associated with age at pubertal onset in boys is sparse. FSHB/FSHR genetic variants have been shown to affect pubertal timing in girls and reproductive parameters in men.<p class="a...

Introduction: Body mass index (BMI) and waist circumference (WC) are the main anthropometric measures of obesity. However, their inability to take into account body fat distribution raises queries for their predictive value of insulin resistance (IR) in youth.Aim: The aim of this study is to compare BMI and WC with latest anthropometric indices in the assessment of IR in a paediatric Greek population with overweight and ...