ESPE Abstracts

Background: Skeletal dysplasias comprise heterogeneous disorders often characterised by short stature with abnormalities of one or more of epiphysis, metaphysis or diaphysis. Over 200 types of skeletal dysplasias are identified, most of which are autosomal dominantly inherited. Actually, surgery has attempted to correct bone deformities but drug therapy for improving their severe short stature has been rarely attempted.Objective and hypotheses: Administr...

Introduction: CAH is a chronic inherited disease which needs the treatment for the whole life. This situation forms the necessity of a proper patient- doctor relations: not only compliance, but rather informed cooperation. The neonatal screening for CAH allowing the early diagnosis and treatment and availability of internet sources of professional knowledge is the new challenge in the way of education of patients. In Poland there is still observed the dominanc...

Cytochrome P450 oxidoreductase (POR) is the obligatory redox partner of steroid and drug-metabolizing cytochrome P450s located in the endoplasmic reticulum. Mutations in POR cause a broad range of disorders like congenital adrenal hyperplasia that may resemble bone malformations resembling Antley-Bixler syndrome. Genome sequencing studies have revealed the existence of a POR missense variant P228. We aimed to determine the detailed functional impact of POR variant P228L for it...

Background: Cleidocranial dysplasia (CCD) is a very rare dominantly inherited autosomal bone disorder mainly characterized by hypoplasia or aplasia of clavicles, failure of cranial suture closure, dental anomalies, short stature, and other changes in skeletal patterning and growth. Heterozygous loss-of-function mutations cause the majority of the abnormalities in the run-related transcription factor 2 gene (RUNX2). This gene is located on chromosome 6p21 and i...

Background: Obesity in childhood and adolescence represents one of the most challenging public health problems of our century. The prevalence of overweight and obesity in Greece is approximately 21% in children younger than 6 years and up to 40% in older children and adolescents. Mild elevations of TSH concentrations are often detected in obese children and adolescents.Aim: To investigate the thyroid function in overweig...

Introduction: The placenta is an endocrine organ vital to fetal growth. It has multiple functions: pregnancy maintenance, nutrient and oxygen transport to the fetus, and removal of waste products among other functions. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) and proteins are significant mediators of these functions. A description of their global expression in healthy placenta may increase our understanding of the molecular biological pathways that are important for normal fetal gr...

Introduction: Diagnosing growth hormone deficiency (GHD) in children is complex. Spontaneous growth hormone (GH) pulses during late night may influence the pituitary GH response to provocation tests. We evaluated refractoriness during arginine-insulin-tolerance test (AITT) when having a GH-peak during a short spontaneous nocturnal profile in children with short stature.Methods: Altogether 257 children 0-18 years were exa...

Background: The diagnosis of GH deficiency (GHD) is not straightforward in childhood and adolescence, requiring comprehensive clinical, anthropometric, biochemical, endocrine, and neuroradiological assessment. Although pharmacological GH stimulation tests are still considered the gold standard for GHD diagnosis, they are burdened by both poor specificity and side effects. Several studies have addressed the issue of sensitivity and specificity of IGFBP-3 assess...

Introduction: Septo-optic dysplasia (SOD) is an uncommon, highly heterogeneous entity of multifactorial etiology, consisting in the association of 2 or more of the following characteristics: ophthalmological abnormalities [most frequently optic nerve hypoplasia (ONH)], midline brain abnormalities [such as aplasia/hypoplasia of the septum pellucidum (SP) and/or corpus callosum (CC)] and variable degree of hypotalamo-pituitary insufficiency (HPI)<p class="ab...

Background: Rickets is a disease due to a reduced mineralization of the rapidly growing bones (skull, ribs, wrists, knees, ankles) with consequent accumulation of non-mineralized bone matrix, called osteoid tissue. The most frequent cause of rickets is vitamin D and/or calcium deficiency caused by reduced sun exposure, inadequate dietary intake or malabsorption (nutritional rickets).Clinical history: R., a 1 year and 6 m...