ESPE Abstracts

SHOX gene haploinsufficiency is a well-documented cause of short stature and skeletal abnormalities; SHOX duplications appear very rare and of uncertain clinical significance. If relatively extended, they can result in SHOX overexpression with normal or tall stature. Partial SHOX duplications seems to have a more deleterious effect on skeletal dysplasia and short stature than complete SHOX duplications. MLPA (Multiplex Ligation-dependent Probe Amplification) analysis of SHOX/P...

Pulmonary carcinoid tumors represent well-differentiated pulmonary neuroendocrine tumors, which include typical and atypical carcinoids. This type of lung tumors is rare, but represents the most common primary malignant lung tumor in children and adolescents, especially the typical carcinoids. They can be asymptomatic at the time of diagnosis or can present with nonspecific findings like recurrent pneumonia, cough, and hemoptysis. We report the case of a 15-year-old girl reffe...

Introduction: Thyroid hormones (THs) play a crucial role in growth, brain development and function and metabolic homeostasis. The sensitivity to TH indices seems to be associated with metabolic syndrome (MS), prediabetes and diabetes in adults. We evaluated the sensitivity to TH indices in a pediatric population with neuromotor disability in relationship with the MS presence, using a multivariate analysis (MVA).Patients and Metho...

Background: Hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) recipients exhibit excess adiposity that may result in an increased metabolic risk. Studies have shown that BMI is a poor predictor of body fatness in pediatric HSCT survivors population where diminished lean mass has been documented. The visceral adiposity index (VAI) has recently been proposed as a predictor of cardio-metabolic risk in both adults and children. However, the predictive value of this i...

Objective: Acute adrenal crisis is one of the main concerns in children with classic congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH). The aim of this study was to evaluate hypoglycemic and salt-wasting episodes in children with an established diagnosis of classic 21-hydroxylase deficiency (21-OHD) after start of treatment.Methods: A retrospective observational study was conducted for 85 patients with classic CAH (68 salt-wasting and 17 simple virilizing), aged 1 to...

Background: Growth Hormone (GH) plays an important role in linear growth and in bone turnover during childhood. GH deficiency (GHD) may cause secondary osteoporosis associated to low bone mineral density (BMD), impairment of bone turnover and increased fracture rate. The effects of treatment with recombinant human Growth Hormone (rhGH) on bone metabolism are controversial. We aimed to assess BMD using dual energy x-ray absorptiometry (DEXA) among a cohort of children with GHD ...

Clinical history and symptoms: XX, 9.37 years, was referred to our Clinic for obesity and psycho-motor delay. Family history: Fibromyalgic mother, two maternal cousins with psycho-motor delay, paternal uncle with epilepsy and intellectual disability. Born at term from caesarean section for placental detachment after physiological pregnancy (birth weight g 1900, SGA). In the first years of life she had psychomotor retardation, episodes of affective spasms, nocturnal enuresis, a...

Childhood obesity is the consequence of a complex interaction among several factors: environment, genetics, endocrine disorders, medications and other conditions. Genetic factors are described to be causal factors in up to 30–50% of overweight conditions. Although polygenetic obesity is by far the most commonly observed, several obesity related syndromes associated with single gene defects have been identified.Case presentation: A three year old gir...

Background: Autoimmune polyendocrinopathy candidiasis ectodermal dystrophy (APECED) or autoimmune polyendocrinopathy type 1 (APS-1) is a rare monogenic autosomal recessive disease due to pathogenic variants in the AIRE gene. APECED usually begins during early childhood with chronic mucocutaneous candidiasis (CMC), followed by hypopathyroidism (HP) and Addison’s disease (AD); however, other endocrine and non-endocrine components may occur with a different prevalen...

Background: Abnormalities of cervical spine have been described in association with pituitary anomalies in the context of malformative syndromes with midline defects. Several genes are involved in the control of pituitary gland development, differentiation and function. In particular, the presence of os odontoideum has been reported in one case of pituitary hypoplasia, associated with leg anomalies, renal dysplasia and no aberrations of the BMP4, BMP2 and PTX1 genes. In anothe...