ESPE Abstracts

Background: Central precocious puberty (CPP) is defined as the secondary sexual characteristics onset before 8 years of age in females and before 9 in males, due to premature activation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal axis. The underlying cause remains idiopathic in the great majority; based on the 2009 Consensus, 2% to 7% of girls who have onset of CPP between the ages of 6 and 8 years have unsuspected pathology and only 1% have a tumor such...

Background: Obesity is a persistent disorder that almost universally recurs following treatment, suggesting a disruption on central nervous system control over energy homeostasis. Recent literature suggests that hypothalamic inflammation may have an important role on obesity pathogenesis. This inflammatory reaction, which histologically appears as a reactive gliosis, may be detected using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and has just been shown in rodent models and adults.</p...

Background: The initial L-T4 dose currently recommended in the treatment of congenital hypothyroidism (CH) is 10–15 mcg/kg per day.Objective and hypotheses: We designed a multicenter randomized trial to evaluate the effects of different starting doses of L-T4 within the range 10–15 mcg/kg per day on neurocognitive development in children with CH.Method: Seventy-two children with CH diagnosed by neonatal screening were enr...

Body Mass Index (BMI) has a high association with body fat percentage and direct association with a higher degree of comorbidities. Categorizing patients only by the degree of obesity, as has been done over time, restricts the possibility of detecting and giving timely treatment to other aspects. The Edmonton Obesity Staging System for Pediatrics (EOSS-P) has been proposed as a tool to categorize obesity not only by BMI, but also by assessing metabolic complications, functiona...

Introduction: About 25% of children and adolescents with Type 1 Diabetes (T1D) have one or more associated autoimmune conditions. Although Graves' disease (GD) rarely occurs, considering the potential severity of manifestations, an early diagnosis and appropriate treatment are essential. The first line treatment is methimazole, whose use is not free from side effects; therefore, it is important to start with the most appropriate dosage.<p class="abste...

Background: Hypergonadotropic hypogonadism (HH) is an hallmark of Turner Syndrome (TS) and hormone replacement therapy (HRT) is often required for pubertal induction; this retrospective study highlights the pituitary-gonadal axis during infancy (<5 years), childhood (5–10.9 years) and adolescence (> 11 years) in a cohort of TS patients enrolled between February 1999 to March 2023. Our aim is to underline the diagnostic role of Gonadotropins as a ma...

Objectives: To evaluate the potential diagnostic role and sensitivity of T2-weighted DRIVE sequence in pituitary stalk (PS) identification and measurements in patients with hypothalamic-pituitary disorders. The degree of agreement and reliability between standard pre- and post-contrast T1-weighted images and T2-DRIVE will be tested in a large group of patients with pituitary dysfunction.Design: We searched for pituitary MRI reports using ‘T2-DRIVE&#...

Introduction: Few studies have been published comparing the liquid and tablet formulations of L-T4 in pediatric patients, with a short follow-up period. Both formulations seemed to produce a rapid normalization of thyroid fuction with a tendency of a greater TSH inhibition in children taking the L-T4 liquid drops. The aim of our study is to compare the long-term effectiveness and saftey of both liquid and tablet L-T4 therapy in CH patients up to 3 years old via a multicenter s...

Background: Hashimoto’s thyroiditis (HT) has been linked to papillary cancer in adults but not in children and adolescents. Moreover, there is no agreement on the more appropriate frequency of thyroid ultrasound (TS) in the follow-up of children with HT.Objective and hypotheses: The aim of the study was to investigate the incidence of thyroid nodules and of thyroid cancer in a large group of children and adolescents (567) with HT followed-up for a m...

Innervation of the hypothalamic median eminence by Gonadotropin-Releasing Hormone (GnRH) neurons is vital to ensure puberty onset and successful reproduction. However, the molecular and cellular mechanisms underlying median eminence development and pubertal timing are incompletely understood. Here we show that Semaphorin-6A is strongly expressed by median eminence-resident oligodendrocytes positioned adjacent to GnRH neuron projections and fenestrated capillaries, and that Sem...