ESPE Abstracts

Introduction: Neonatal thyrotoxicosis (NT) is rare but potentially life-threatening condition with high mortality risk due to cardiac failure(12-20%). Affected neonates are born to mothers with underlying thyroid pathology. Estimated prevalence of trans-placental transfer of thyroid antibodies occurs 1 in every 70 pregnancies with Graves’ disease. Symptoms in the neonate usually manifest by 10 days of life but this can be as late as day 45. We discuss tw...

Background: Obesity results from interactions between environmental and genetic factors. Despite a relatively high heritability of common, non-syndromic obesity (40–70%), the search for genetic variants contributing to susceptibility has been a challenging task. To date, more than 40 genetic variants have been associated with obesity and fat distribution. However, since these variants do not fully explain the heritability of obesity, other forms of va...

Background: Thyroid hormones act via receptors (TRα; TRβ) encoded by separate genes (THRA, THRB). Mutations in THRA are a recently-recognised cause of Resistance to Thyroid Hormone alpha (RTHα), a disorder with tissue-specific hypothyroidism but near-normal thyroid function tests.Aim: We describe the youngest recorded case of RTHa, in a 2yr old boy with disproportionate short stature, ...

Background: StAR deficiency is a rare cause of primary adrenal insufficiency (PAI), with fewer than 100 cases reported worldwide. The first patients to be described suffered from severe forms of lipoid adrenal hyperplasia leading to severe undervirilization in 46,XY foetuses. More recently, however, less severe forms, known as "non-classical" or "atypical lipoid adrenal hyperplasia", presenting with PAI with salt wasting (SW) syndrome and norma...

Background: Resistance to thyroid hormone beta (THRβ) is a clinical spectrum which varies in presentation even between individuals with the same mutation. Life-threatening cardiac dysfunction is recognized in homozygous THRβ state but never reported in cases of inherited heterozygous THRβ defects.Aim: We report the first case of familial inherited heterozygous (THRB) beta mutation presenting with ...

Background: Children with congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH) need chronic glucocorticoid therapy, both to replace congenital deficit in cortisol synthesis and to suppress the overproduction of androgens by the adrenal cortex. High doses of glucocorticoid taken chronically might affect bone metabolism and lead to alterations of bone mass in this condition. In particular, they could increase bone resorption rate. Bone mineral density (BMD) by energy X-ray abso...

We evaluated the final height and the endocrine complications encountered in young adult patients with Thalassemia Intermedia (TI) followed at Hematology Section, Doha (Qatar) in relation to the liver iron content (LIC) in non-transfused versus infrequently transfused TI patients.Patients and Methods: This retrospective cohort study was performed on 28 young adults with TI who were randomly selected from the Hematology clinic, National C...

Introduction: Niemann Pick type B (NMP B) is a rare lysosomal storage disease caused by mutations in the SMPD1 gene. Typically, had normal height and weight. In this work, we report an unusual association of a Niemann Pick disease in a child with hypopituitarism.Case:We report the case of a young boy who was hospitalized at the age of 11, in Hematological Department for splenomegaly and polyadenopathies where the d...

We evaluated growth parameters and endocrine disorders in relation to the quantity of liver iron (LIC) measured by the Ferriscan method and insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-I) level in a cohort of adolescents with sickle cell disease (SCD) (n=40) and beta thalassemia major (BTM) (n=52) receiving nearly the same protocol of transfusion and iron chelation therapy since early childhood. Before transfusion, hemoglobin concentration had not been less than 9 g/dl ...

Introduction: Congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH) is the underlying diagnosis in most newborns presenting with 46,XX disorders of sex development (DSD). Cytochrome P450 oxidoreductase deficiency (PORD) is a rare form of CAH caused by inactivating mutations in the POR gene. POR is a crucial electron donor to all microsomal type 2 P450 cytochromes (CYPs), including 21-hydroxylase (CYP21A2) and 17alpha-hydroxylase (CYP17A1). The hallmark feature of PORD is combined sex-steroid a...