ESPE Abstracts

Background: In contrast to monogenic diseases, contiguous gene syndrome (CGS) describes a clinical phenotype caused by a deletion or duplication of several neighbouring genes. Angelman or Williams-Beuren syndrome are examples demonstrating that deletion of several adjacent genes causes a complex clinical syndrome. However, CGS are very rare events in pediatric endocrinology, and require knowledge of clinical associations pointing towards specific potentially affected genes in ...

Background: Aortic sized index (ASI) defined as aortic root size/body surface area (BSA) is used to provide information on dissection risk in Turner Syndrome (TS). There are multiple equations for estimation of BSA. The impact of using a different BSA equation for calculation of ASI is unknown.Method: We calculated BSA of 114 TS girls from 2273 outpatient visits using Dubois, Mostellar, Haycock, Gehan, Boyd and Furqan formulae. BSA estimation with Dubois...

Background: Treating central precocious puberty with GnRH agonist (GnRHa) to increase height gain is well-established. Although not recommended, GnRHa have also been used in patients with IGHD at onset of puberty yet there are few data on its efficacy.Objective and hypotheses: Growth prediction models derived from KIGS (Pfizer International Growth Database) may provide an opportunity to estimate additional height gain produced by pubertal blockade.<p...

Background: Prader–Willi Syndrome (PWS) is a genetic disorder associated with hyperphagia and hyperghrelinemia with major morbidity due to obesity. The aetiology of hyperphagia is unknown, but presumed to be multifactorial, and, as ghrelin is orexigenic, high levels may contribute to weight issues in PWS. Currently, there is no effective medical treatment for hyperphagia in PWS, but targeting appetite could be beneficial. Exenatide (Byetta (synthetic exendin-4); AstraZene...

Background: Autoimmune thyroid disease (AITD) is the most common thyroid disorder in the paediatric age range. However, the development of thyroid dysfunction in biochemically euthyroid children with positive TPOAbs and associated risk factors is unclear.Objective and hypotheses: To evaluate the evolution of children with positive TPOAbs and normal thyroid function and identify predictive factors for the development of thyroid dysfunction.<p class="a...

Background: Congenital hypogonadotropic hypogonadism (CHH) is a rare disease with a complex clinical picture and genetic background. In up to 50% genetic mutations are found. The goal is to be able to provide a comprehensive prognosis and genetic counseling for this family with CHH.Case presentation: At the age of 16 years a boy with familial constitutional delay (adrenarche only with 15 years, no growth spurt, bone age 14 years) present...

Background: The imbalance between oxidant-antioxidant status plays an essential role in the pathogenesis of many autoimmune diseases, including autoimmune thyroid disease (AITD). Studies have described that children with AITD have reduced superoxide dismutase (SOD), glutathione peroxidase (GPx), and significantly low zinc levels. This study assessed the effect of daily zinc supplementation for 12 weeks on thyroid auto-antibodies - thyroid peroxidase antibody (...

Background: Hypophosphatasia (HPP) is an inherited multisystem disorder predominantly affecting the mineralization of bones and teeth. HPP is caused by pathogenic variants in ALPL, which encodes tissue non-specific alkaline phosphatase. A major challenge in diagnosing HPP is interpreting variants in ALPL classified as variants of uncertain significance (VUS) according to ACMG/AMP criteria, creating uncertainty in patients and treating physicians resulting in d...

Backgound: Alopecia areata (AA) or Alopecia Totalis (AT) is an autoimmune disease directed at the hair follicle, either limited to patchy hair loss over the scalp (focalis), or as total loss of scalp hair (totalis) or as total loss of both scalp and body hair (universalis). Management can be challenging, and despite multiple treatment modalities, no therapy still stands. While localized AA may respond well to topical corticosteroids, many patients require more aggressive secon...

Background: 16p11.2 microdeletion is most common chromosomal anomaly associated with syndromic obesity. The presence of a large number of flanking segmental duplications/low-copy repeat sequences with a high degree of sequence identity in the short arm of chromosome 16 (16p) leads to recurrent deletions and duplications as a consequence of non-allelic homologous recombination. A recurrent 600kb microdeletion is one of the most frequent genomic imbalances in 16...