ESPE Abstracts

Background: POMC plays a major role in central body weight regulation. Recently we have shown that a POMC hypermethylation variant is significantly associated with obesity in children and adolescents (Kuehnen et al. PLoS Genetics 2012).Objective and hypotheses: Here we report about our extended studies to elucidate the mechanism behind the occurrence of the POMC hypermethylation variant in obese individuals.<p clas...

Background: Patients with childhood-onset GH deficiency (GHD) are usually retested in late adolescence or young adulthood, after achievement of final height, to verify whether they need to continue GH treatment. Most of the patients found to have idiopathic GHD when tested as children have normal GH responses when retested in the early or late adolescence. Indeed, the 2007 Consensus guidelines for the diagnosis and treatment of GHD adults recommended that idiopathic GHD patien...

Background: Congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH) is a group of autosomal recessive disorders characterised by impaired cortisol synthesis. An enzymatic defect in 11-beta-hydroxylase is the second most common variant of CAH and accounts for approximately 5–8% of cases. Patients present with features of androgen excess and approximately two thirds of patients also have high blood pressure (HBP), which is initially responsive to glucocorticoid replacement, but may become a c...

Background: GH revolutionised treatment of children with GH deficiency, conditioning an improvement in height outcome but also an increase of lean body mass and reduction of fat mass.Objective and hypotheses: The authors aimed to evaluate the growth and weight response in children with GH deficiency and identify potential factors affecting the outcome of these patients.Method: The growth and weight data of 58 children (33 boys and ...

Background: Central precocious puberty is due to premature activation of the hypothalamo–pituitary–ovarian axis. In girls it is idiopathic in up to 95%. Children with clinical rapid progression are treated with prolonged activity GnRH agonist.Objective and hypotheses: Characterise cases of idiopathic central precocious puberty (ICPP) followed at our hospital comparing the group treated with GnRH agonist (group A) with the group not treated (gro...

Background: Cerebral infarction (CI) is a known vascular complication following treatment of suprasellar tumors. Risk factors for CI, incidence rate, and long-term prognosis are unknown for patients with childhood-onset craniopharyngioma (CP).Methods: MRI of 244 CP patients, recruited between 2007 and 2019 in KRANIOPHARYNGEOM 2007, were reviewed for CI. Risk factors for CI and outcome after CI were analyzed.<p class=...

Objectives: To reassess growth hormone (GH) status by the means of Insulin (ITT) and Glucagon tests (GL) in young adults with childhood-onset GHD.Methods: We present preliminary data of 67 subjects (25F, 42M) recruited from a single Center, in whom anthropometrics, ITT and GL stimulation tests and IGF-1 evaluations were undertaken at adult height achievement, at a mean age of 17.3±2.2 (range: 13.3-25.7). Subjects we...

Cowden syndrome (CS) is a cancer predisposition syndrome. The clinical hallmarks of CS are macrocephaly and mucocutaneous lesions. Several tumor types have been described, mostly malignancies of the breast, thyroid, endometrium, kidney and colorectum. The age of onset is extremely variable. So far, only two case reports of children with ovarian tumors in the context of CS have been published, a granulosa cell tumor of a 16-year-old girl (Smpokou et al. 2014) and a bilateral en...

It is well known that early diagnosis of growth disorders in children and their timely treatment are important for better outcomes.Objective: To evaluate the results from the implementation of the Partners4Growth Twinning Programme at Bulgarian tertiary pediatric endocrinology clinics. Materials and Methods: Since 2019 Partners4Growth started operation at 6 centers – 3 experienced in growth disorders reference centers and 3 twin cen...

Background: due to its recently documented role in intercellular tight junction disassembly, zonulin has emerged as a valuable biological marker to assess the integrity of the intestinal mucosal barrier. Experimental studies have shown an association between intestinal permeability and obesity.Objectives: aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between serum zonulin levels, both at baseline and postprandial...