ESPE Abstracts

Background: Dominantly acting loss-of-function mutations in the ABCC8 gene, encoding the sulfonylurea receptor 1 (SUR1) subunit of the β-cell potassium channel (KATP), are usually responsible for mild diazoxide-responsive congenital hyperinsulinism (CHI). In rare cases dominant ABCC8 mutations can cause diffuse diazoxide-unresponsive CHI. Recent reports suggest that medically responsive CHI due to a dominant ABCC8 mutation may confer an increase...

Achondroplasia is a rare genetic condition caused by a recurrent pathogenetic variant in the FGFR3 gene resulting in short limb skeletal dysplasia. Due to the wide-ranging anomalies associated with achondroplasia (both peculiar clinical features and complications), a multidisciplinary team is often required for ongoing care, although the nature of specialists involved differs among countries. Despite a European consensus on principles for the management of achondropla...

Background: Thyroid function in preterm infants is often altered for various reasons. LBW or VLBW newborns frequently present a particular form of congenital hypothyroidism (CH) characterized by low FT4 and delayed TSH elevation. The incidence of this disease is 1:250 for VLBW babies and 1:1589 for LBW newborns. In this condition, neonatal screening based solely on TSH can miss the diagnosis, therefore some screening programs have proposed to repeat the screening te...

Background: Different studies have underlined the role of anti-Müllerian hormone (AMH) and inhibin B as markers of the ovarian function in paediatric and adolescent patients with Turner syndrome (TS).Objective and hypotheses: Our study aims to verify the role of AMH in a cohort of patients affected by TS.Method: We analysed 23 TS patients, aged 2–34 years, describing their auxological parameters and the pubertal developme...

Background: Maternal autoimmune hypothyroidism can have negative consequences on the fetus: on the one hand, maternal hypothyrosinemia might affect the fetal brain development in the early stages of pregnancy; on the other, thyroid inhibiting antibodies can pass through the placenta. It is currently unclear if these antibodies may affect the newborn’s thyroid function. Consequently, there are no certain indications regarding the management of newborns bor...

The new care paradigm for DSD promoted by the Chicago Consensus of 2005 raised many psychological challenges, the most important being the way decisions regarding the sex of rearing and diagnosis communication are made. The traditional care paradigm, sustained by a binary sex categorization, suggested that for newborns, the decision about the sex of rearing should be made as soon as possible and no later than 18 months of life and that little should be said to the involved per...

Objective: To study the effect of orexin deficiency on metabolic and pubertal characteristics in narcoleptic children, we compared the metabolic and pubertal alterations between 15 children with narcolepsy with cataplexy (NC) and 15 control children matched for age, body mass index (BMI) z score.Method: Narcoleptic data were collected from the Reference Center for Narcolepsy and control common obese data from the department of pediatric endocrinology in ...

Background: Proteoglycans are abundant and structurally complex bio macromolecules. They reside on the cell surface and are a major component of the extracellular matrix including bone. Defective formation of proteoglycans may case pleiotropic connective tissue syndromes including EDS-like and Larsen syndrome–like phenotypes.Objective and hypotheses: We report on a girl with disproportionate short stature and joint laxity with pes planus and radial ...

Introduction: Thyroid diseases are among the most common endocrine disorders affecting children and adolescents. These conditions are often associated with a wide range of skin disorders such as xerosis, mixedema, hypohidrosis, eczema, and more rarely hypertrichosis.Case: A 5-year-old female child was referred to our clinic due to short stature, Cushingoid appearance and marked hypertrichosis. At birth length and weight ...

A 16-year-old boy was admitted to the Emergency Department for a painless laterocervical swelling, dysphagia and an ultrasound suspect of thyroiditis. On examination he presented facial asymmetry due to maxillary bones hypoplasia and facial nerve palsy of recent onset. There was also a history of hearing loss, hypospadias, Arnold-Chiari malformation and vertebral defects according to a clinical phenotype of Goldenhar Syndrome (GHS). Blood exams showed TSH 7.46 μU/ml (0.68-4...