ESPE Abstracts

Background: The 6-min walk test (6MWT) is a simple, accurate and safe method to measure functional exercise capacity. The 6MWT is increasingly used in children to predict morbidity and mortality from cardiopulmonary disease, to assess functional capacity and measure disease progression in chronic childhood conditions such as muscular dystrophy.Objective and hypotheses: To provide smooth reference curves for the 6-min walk distance (6MWD) in healthy child...

Background: There is wide geographic variation in the frequency of diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA) at onset of diabetes from ~15–70% in Europe and North America.Objective and hypotheses: To evaluate the frequency of DKA at the onset of type 1 diabetes (T1D) in the paediatric population seen in the Department of Pediatric Diabetology of Turin (Italy) from 1/1/2008 to 31/12/2013.Method: Data (venous pH and HCO3, season at the onset)...

SHOX deficiency causes a spectrum of clinical phenotypes related to skeletal dysplasia and short stature, including Léri-Weill dyschondrosteosis, Langer mesomelic dysplasia, Turner syndrome, and idiopathic short stature. SHOX controls chondrocyte proliferation and differentiation, bone maturation, cellular growth arrest and apoptosis via transcriptional regulation of its direct target genes NPPB, FGFR3, and CTGF. However, our u...

Background: Familial Hypercholesterolaemia (FH) is a common autosomal dominant disorder of low-density lipoprotein (LDL) metabolism characterised by elevated levels of plasma LDL-cholesterol (LDL-C), accelerated atherosclerosis and premature cardiovascular disease (CVD). In the Gulf Co-operation Council states, CVD is often diagnosed at a younger age and is the leading cause of mortality. As such, early genetic diagnosis and treatment of FH is important for ri...

Background: Woodhouse-Sakati syndrome (WSS) is rare autosomal recessive condition characterized by progressive extrapyramidal signs, mental retardation, hypogonadism, alopecia, and diabetes mellitus. The age at disease onset, manifestation and severity of specific symptoms differs significantly among individuals with this syndrome and even among affected members of the same family. The gene C2orf37, which is responsible for WSS, located on chromosome 2q22.3-q35.<p class="a...

Background: The mitochondrial enzyme nicotinamide nucleotide transidrogenase (NNT) is essential in the antioxidant defense mechanisms and appears to be essential to the stages of adrenal steroidogenesis that occur inside the mitochondria.Aim: To characterize how mutations in NNT gene impair adrenal steroidogenesis resulting in familial glucocorticoid deficiency (FGD).Methods: Genom...

Background: Loss-of-function mutations in the imprinted gene MKRN3 represent the most common known genetic defects associated with central precocious puberty (CPP). The penetrance of these mutations remains to be established. To date, all reported individuals with MKRN3 mutations were already in puberty or postpubertal and were identified retrospectively.Objective and hypotheses: To report the first case of a prepubertal child with an MKRN3 muta...

Background: Growth spurt is a major event in central precocious puberty (CPP). GnRH analogue (GnRHa) therapy inhibits gonadal axis and decreases height velocity. However, serum IGF1 and IGFBP-3 remain high as before therapy. Reports on IGF type 1 receptor (IGF1R) in CPP are yet unavailable.Aim: To study IGF1R mRNA expression in girls with CPP before and during GnRHa therapy.Methods: 34 girls with CPP were studied. Sixteen of them (...

Introduction: Early-onset severe obesity (before five years of age) without intellectual deficit, dysmorphisms, or malformations raises the hypothesis of monogenic obesity. The leptin receptor (Lepr) pathway is essential for food intake regulation, energy expenditure, and body weight. Mutations in leptin and the Lepr have been shown to cause early-onset severe obesity in mice and humans.Objective: To report the clinical ...

Introduction: Diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA) is a potentially fatal hyperglycemic emergency primarily associated with type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1D). The association between DKA and severe hypertriglyceridemia has already been previously discussed with a prevalence ranging between 7.1%-25%, with pancreatitis present in the majority of cases. Epidemiological data in the pediatric age are scarce and not well established. Its etiology is not yet fully known. The &qu...