ESPE Abstracts

Introduction: Differentiation between constitutional delay of growth and puberty (CDGP) and congenital hypogonadotropic hypogonadism (CHH) during early adolescence is challenging, as patients exhibit a similar clinical picture and there are no definite clinical or biochemical markers that distinguish these 2 pathologies. A delay in diagnosis, especially for CHH, may have short and long-term health consequences. The aims of this study were: 1) To evaluate the u...

Introduction: Persistent Müllerian duct syndrome (PMDS) is a rare disorder of sex development (DSD) characterized by the persistence of Müllerian derivatives, the uterus and/or fallopian tubes, in otherwise normally virilized boys. PMDS is caused by mutations in the genes coding anti-Müllerian hormone (AMH, PMDS type 1) or the AMH receptor (AMHR2 gene, PMDS type 2) and it usually presents as undescended testes (cryptorchidism) or inguinal hernia...

Background: The activation of the hypothalamus-pituitary-gonadal (HPG) axis during the first months both in males(M) and females(F) is named as minipuberty. Urinary gonadotropins (uGn) represent an unexpensive and non-invasive method of assessing pubertal development and they have recently been used also for studying minipuberty.Aims of the study are: 1) to describe the urinary hormonal pattern (uLH, uFSH, testosterone – uT, oestra...

Background: Growth hormone (rGH) treatment is an approved growth promoting therapy in children born small for gestational age (SGA) without spontaneous catch-up. SGA infants may be born either full-term or premature. Prematurity is an additional risk factor for adult short stature. Premature children born SGA may potentially be affected by combination of the effects of prematurity and SGA status. There are only few reports on premature SGA children treated wit...

Background: In order to prevent virilization in CAH female fetuses, physicians have during the last thirty years used the synthetic glucocorticoid dexamethasone (DEX) as a therapeutic approach administered during early pregnancy. Due to the fact that treatment has to be started before the genotype of the fetus is known, seven out of eight treated fetuses will be subjected to high doses of DEX during early embryogenesis without benefit. Therefore, negative side effects cannot b...

Background: Chimerism is the phenomenon of two or more genetically distinct cell lines (originating from different zygotes) in the same individual. In situations when the sex of the fertilised eggs is disparate, it can lead to intersex phenotypes.Objective and hypotheses: We report a case of ovotesticular disorder of sexual development with chimerism resulting from a twin pregnancy (not involving assisted reproductive technologies).<p class="abstext"...

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...

Introduction: Distal chromosome 15 duplication is a very rare genetic disease, first described in 1974 by Fujimoto et al. The symptoms and physical findings include prenatal and/or postnatal growth retardation, mental retardation, poor speaking abilities, asymmetrical dysmorphic facial features, malformations of the fingers and/or toes and sometimes heart conditions.Case report: We report a case of a 2 years 5 months old girl, born with SGA (uterine grow...

Background: Diffuse congenital hyperinsulinism in infancy (CHI-D) mainly arises from mutations in KATP channel genes. In addition, there are also several reports of increased cell proliferation in CHI-D. We hypothesised that the higher rates of proliferation in CHI-D are as a consequence of failure to terminate proliferation in the neonatal period.Objective and hypotheses: To test this we examined the proliferative index (PI) of CHI-D tissue a...

Background: The prevalence of childhood obesity has increased dramatically in the last decades and accounts for a significant increase in morbidity and mortality in adulthood.Objective and hypotheses: To determine the prevalence of 25-hydroxyvitamin D insufficiency and deficiency in overweight and obese children and adolescents.Method: 350 (n=350) children and adolescents (153 males (M), 197 females (F)) were recruited to ...