ESPE Abstracts

Background: Wolfram syndrome (WS or DIDMOAD) is a rare (prevalence of 1/770,000) autosomal recessive multi-systemic neurodegenerative disease, characterized by non-autoimmune diabetes mellitus (DM) and optic atrophy. Additional features include diabetes insipidus (DI), sensorineural deafness, urinary tract abnormalities, ataxia, psychiatric illness, and other endocrine disturbances leading to death in mid-adulthood. This syndrome is caused by recessive mutations in the wolfram...

Background: Polyuria and polydipsia must never be underestimated.Objective and hypotheses: A 7-year-old girl presented with polyuria, polydipsia and nocturia of 1 year duration, during which she underwent outpatient follow up with her general practitioner and urologist. No weight loss or other endocrine signs.Method: Polyuria was confirmed by water balance (120 ml/kg per 24 h), urinary osmolality (222 mmol/kg), plasma osmolality (2...

Introduction: The extracellular calcium-sensing receptor (CaSR) enables the parathyroid glands and other CaSR-expressing cells involved in calcium homeostasis to sense alterations in calcium serum concentrations. Mutations in the CASR gene may produce gain or loss in its activity. Activating mutations cause a hypocalcaemic syndrome of varying severity, as autosomal-dominant hypocalcaemia or Bartter’s syndrome.Case report: We describe a 6 months infa...

Background: The normal recovery of the hypothalamic–pituitary–gonadal axis after discontinuation of therapy with GNRH analogue for precocious puberty has been proven and documented in the last decades. There has been no report in the literature of patients in which a history of GNRH treatment of precocious puberty is correlated with premature ovarian failure.Objective and hypotheses: The aim of the authors is to evaluate the possibility of a co...

With the ever escalating trajectory of childhood obesity, rates of prediabetes and type 2 diabetes (T2DM) are on the incline. Impaired fasting glucose (IFG) and/or impaired glucose tolerance (IGT) constitute a state of prediabetes with high risk for the development of T2DM. Among U.S. adolescents 12–19 years of age, NHANES 2005–2006, the prevalence of IFG, IGT and prediabetes was 13.1, 3.4 and 16.1%, respectively. Overweight adolescents had a 2.6-fold higher rate tha...

Congenital hypogonadotropic hypogonadism (CHH) is a rare disorder characterized by incomplete or absent puberty caused by the lack or deficient number of hypothalamic GnRH neurons, disturbed secretion or action of GnRH, or both. The association of CHH and a defective sense of smell (anosmia or hyposmia) found in approximately half of the CHH patients is termed Kallmann syndrome (KS). CHH is clinically and genetically heterogeneous, and >25 different causal genes have been ...

Background: Childhood IGCT are rare, malignant tumours of the pituitary stalk and pineal region, highly curable (>90%) by multimodal therapies. Neuroendocrine outcomes are thus important. Deficits increase over time but, without longitudinal studies, it remains unclear whether they are primarily disease or treatment related.Objective and hypotheses: To determine, by longitudinal retrospective analysis in survivors, tumour- and treatment-related facto...

Background: Phthalates are industrial chemicals extensively used as plasticizers in a variety of commercial products. Di-(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP) is one of the most frequently used phthalates. DEHP is readily metabolized to mono-(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (MEHP), which is more toxic than its parent compound. There are some animal and in vitro studies suggesting that phthalates can disrupt hypothalamus-pituitary-thyroid axis.Objective and hy...

Background: Brain tumours constitute the second most common tumours in childhood after leukaemia. Infra-tentorial tumours are more common. Most of the supra-tentorial tumours (STT) are in the supra or para-sellar regions. Malignant tumours are rare. The survival is 50–90% with appropriate management. However, STT and/or treatment may lead to traumatic brain injury (TBI) with endocrinopathic sequel.Methods: This is a retrospective hospital based stud...

Background: Hetero- and homozygous mutations in Steroidogenic Factor1 (SF1, NR5A1) cause 46,XY and 46,XX disorders of sex development (DSD), azoospermia, and primary ovarian insufficiency. NR5A1 is also involved in embryonic spleen development, by transactivation of T-cell Leukemia Homeobox 1 (TLX1). Hypo- or asplenism have occasionally been observed in DSD patients with NR5A1 mutations.<p clas...