ESPE Abstracts

Objectives: To describe the patients with gender non-conforming referred to a pediatric medical center after creation of the multidisciplinary team "APEVAGE" (Ambulatorio Pediatrico per la Varianza di Genere, Pediatric Clinic for Gender Variance) composed by pediatric endocrinologist, psychologist and child psychiatrist at Institute for Maternal and Child Health "Burlo Garofolo" in Trieste. It is one of the 8 centers recognized by ONIG (Osserva...

Background: Apparent mineralocorticoid excess (AME) is a rare congenital autosomal recessive disorder resulting from mutations in the HSD11B2 gene, which encodes the kidney isozyme of 11-β-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase type 2, inactivating circulating cortisol to the less-active metabolite cortisone. Less than 100 cases of AME have been reported in the literature so far. Affected individuals have elevated renal concentrations of cortisol, which can cross-react and activate...

Background: GH secretion increases physiologically during puberty and GH levels correlate with pubertal stage. Therefore, puberty is the most likely time for normalization of GH secretion in children with GHD. No studies have so far evaluated in children diagnosed as GH-deficient during childhood potential predictors of response to the reevaluation of GH secretion during puberty.Objective and hypotheses: The aim of our study is to establish and compare t...

Background: Cyclic treatment with bisphosphonates (BP) is now considered a ‘standard care’ for children with osteogenesis imperfecta (OI). Vitamin D is a necessary nutrient for bone health for all children but especially for those with OI. In the literature few studies have considered the relationship between bone mineral density, vitamin D and pubertal stage in children treated with BP for OI.Objective and hypotheses: The purpose of this study...

Background: Combined pituitary hormone deficiency (CPHD) is a condition that causes deficiency of several hormones produced by the pituitary gland. The first signs of this condition include a failure to grow at the expected rate and short stature that usually becomes apparent in early childhood. Other features of CPHD include hypothyroidism, delayed puberty, and deficiency of the hormonal cortisol. Some conditions may exacerbate the growth failure of CPHD. Osteogenesis imperfe...

Background: Complete androgen insensitivity syndrome (CAIS) is a condition that results in the complete inability of the cell to respond to androgens and falls within the category of 46,XY disorder of sex development (DSD). CAIS is characterized by female external genitalia in a 46,XY karyotype individual with normal testis development but undescended testes and unresponsiveness to age-appropriate level of androgens. The typical presentation is primary amenorrhea in an adolesc...

Background: Endogenous GH secretion physiologically increases during puberty. In particular, a correlation between GH levels and pubertal stages can be stated. Therefore, it is possible that some patients with childhood-onset GH deficiency (GHD) at puberty normalize their GH secretion. Finally, there are not so far assessed potential predictors of persistent GHD in patients during puberty.Objective and hypotheses: Our study aims evaluating the normalisat...

Background: Ovarian reserve is defined as the functional potential of the ovary, which reflects the number and quality of the follicles left in the ovary at any given time. In literature there studies about the evaluation of ovarian reserve after ovariectomy for tumors and cysts, using serum markers, such as inhibin-B, and anti-Mullerian hormone (AMH), combined to ultrasonographic markers, in adult women but none in peri-pubertal girls.Case presentation:...

Cystic Fibrosis (CF), is due to CF-transmembrane-conductance-regulator (CFTR) loss-of-function. Significant heterogeneity exists between patients, suggesting potential epigenetic regulation, and comorbidities develop with time. MiRNAs are non-coding RNAs that act as epigenetic regulators. Although many studies have focused on the role for miRNAs in regulating CFTR gene expression, little attention has been given to how CFTR influences their expression and how this affects grow...

The growth response in patients undergoing GH treatment is variable depending both on the patient's basal conditions and on personal innate sensitivity to therapy. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are epigenetic regulators of gene expression, and are recognised as important regulators of biological and metabolic processes. It is unknown at present whether miRNAs could be early biomarkers of response to GH treatment in a perspective of individualised medicine, and whether they could disc...