ESPE Abstracts

Background: Approximately 10-15% of small for gestational age (SGA) newborns are at risk of having subnormal growth and persistent short stature. It is postulated that a large amount of persistent short stature results from genetic abnormalities, which are commonly characterized by dysmorphic features and developmental disorders.Aim: To uncover the genetic etiology of syndromic short stature children born SGA.<p clas...

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: Pubertal growth, age of puberty onset and pubertal spurt duration are correlated to final height (FH). Few data are available in subjects with rare genetic syndromes.Objective and hypotheses: To evaluate pubertal pattern and its influence on FH in subjects with different genetic syndromes including the effect of GH-therapy for GH deficiency (GHD) and GnRH analogs for precocious puberty (PP).Method: We studied for growth...

Designing monomeric dual or triple agonists based on glucagon-like peptide (GLP)-1 with glucagon, and/or glucose-dependent insulinotropic polypeptide (GIP) are promising novel approaches for anti-obesity drugs tackling different weight-regulatory pathways, albeit such developments continue to suffer from significant gastrointestinal illnesses. Our own studies have focused instead on the combination of GLP-1 receptor agonists (GLP-1RAs) with neuropeptide Y1- and Y2-receptor (Y1...

Background: Craniopharyngioma is a non-malignant embryonic tumour in the pituitary-hypothalamic area, associated with hypothalamic obesity. Dysfunctional parasympathetic nervous system activity has been proposed as one mechanism underlying alterations in energy metabolism. Arterial spin labelling (ASL) is a non-invasive MRI technique that quantifies brain tissue perfusion as a proxy for functional activity. Here, we measure cerebral perfusion in patients with ...

Background: Growth-and-differentiation factor-15 (GDF15) is a regulator of energy homeostasis, and is used as biomarker of several pathological states.Objectives: To assess longitudinally GDF15 concentrations in a cohort of infants born either appropriate- (AGA, n=70) or small-for-gestational-age (SGA, n=33), the latter known to be at increased risk for central adiposity and metabolic alteration...

Background: Type 2 diabetes (T2D) is an emerging disease in the pediatric population. The mechanisms responsible for the development of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) and progression to nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) in these patients are incompletely understood. Low serum insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) levels are associated with increased histologic severity of NAFLD. Growing evidence suggests that growth hormone (GH) and IGF-1 may have r...

Objective: Recent studies have suggested earlier onset of pubertal development in boys. As assessment with orchidometer tends to overestimate true testicular volume (TV), and measurements based on ultrasound (US) have been proposed as a more reliable method, we present US based references in 6-16 year-old Norwegian boys. Our results are compared with data from Europe and the United States (U.S.) in order to establish evidence for an ongoing secular trend in ma...

Background: Using ultrasound to examine the glandular breast tissue is a promising method for staging pubertal breast development. However, breast ultrasound for this purpose has not been explored in a large sample of healthy girls in different developmental stages, and normative data have been unavailable.Objective: To present novel pubertal references for breast ultrasound stages, Tanner breast (B) and pubic hair (PH) ...

Introduction: Male puberty is initiated by endocrine signaling in the hypothalamic-pituitary axis whereby follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) and luteinizing hormone (LH) enable testicular maturation and synthesis of testosterone. Recent publications have eluded to overnutrition and obesity as relevant factors that may accelerate the timing of puberty. Attainment of testicular volume (TV) 4 ml measured by Prader orchidometer remains the definition of male puber...