ESPE Abstracts

Background: Beckwith–Wiedemann Syndrome (BWS) is a clinical and genetically heterogeneous entity encompassing overgrowth and variable manifestations. Early diagnosis of BWS is crucial due to the increased risk for developing embryonal malignancies (mainly below 5 years of age).Objective: We aimed to screen the presence of underdiagnosed BWS among ‘non-syndromic’ obese children.Method: We studied 159 children (95 male...

Background: The central melanocortin system is highly involved in the control of energy metabolism, receiving and integrating numerous metabolic signals, such as leptin, and biallelic mutations in several genes of the pathway have been reported in severe obesity. However, whether and how heterozygous rare sequence variants (hetRSVs) in genes of this satiety pathway contribute to the development of obesity is poorly explored.Objec...

Background: Obesity is characterised by excessive fat accumulation coursing with a chronic mild inflammatory state, with adipose tissue (AT) being the main site of increased systemic cytokine production. Increased adiposity early in life is the main risk factor for cardiometabolic disorders later in life, with the abnormal accumulation of lipids in AT leading to the production of pro-inflammatory cytokines. Inflammatory process that involves metabolic and card...

Background: Over the last decade, and in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been a substantial increase in the use of digital health tools to track growth and manage growth disorders in children. Paediatric endocrinologists acknowledge the usefulness of these tools in clinical decision making but lack confidence and skills to use them. Atique et al. designed a Massive Open Online Learning Course (MOOC) to increase digital health literacy, and identified...

Introduction: Prader–Willi syndrome (PWS) is a genetic disorder caused by the lack of expression of genes on the paternally inherited chromosome 15q11.2-q13 region. Clinical picture of PWS changes across life stages. PWS is characterized by endocrine abnormalities, such as growth hormone (GH) deficiency, obesity, central adrenal insufficiency, hypothyroidism, hypogonadism, and complex behavioural and intellectual difficulties. The recombinant human growt...

A female child born from non consanguineous parents of Pakistani origin presented with congenital heart anomaly at prenatal ultrasound and confirmed at birth, with type B aortic arch interruption, right-sided aortic arch, wide ventricular and atrium septum defects, which required repeated surgical corrections during the first 9 months of life. The ultrasound also reported absence of the thymus. Suspecting Di Deorge Syndrome, a fluorescent in situ hybridization (FISH) ...

Background: Beckwith-Wiedemann Syndrome (BWS) is an overgrowth disorder involving a predisposition to tumor development, etiologically connected with genetic/epigenetic dysregulation. The main features of BWS include omphalocele, macroglossia and macrosomia; however there is significant clinical heterogeneity. SHOX mutation is a frequent cause of short stature with high penetrance, but extremely variable clinical expression. The mean adult height is -2.2 SDS. The presence of m...

Background: Haploinsufficiency of short stature homeobox containing gene (SHOX) is one of the main monogenic causes of short stature. The phenotype of SHOX deficiency (SHOX-D) is often mild, making difficult to identify which short-statured children should be screened.Objective and hypotheses: To estimate the prevalence of SHOX-D in Italian short-statured children and to analyse their phenotype and the sensitivity of various scores and anthropometric mea...

Introduction: Type 1 diabetes (T1D) is a chronic autoimmune disease characterized by the presence of pancreatic-autoantibodies, which are diagnostic biomarkers. The detection of autoantibodies in first-degree relatives of patients with T1D is considered a risk factor for developing the disease; however, there is little information on how long it takes from the detection of autoimmunity to the clinical onset of T1D.Objectives:</st...

Background and aims: The introduction of next-generation sequencing (NGS) as an essential tool for the routine molecular diagnosis of DM has highlighted the under-diagnosis of monogenic diabetes mellitus (MonDM). Accurate molecular diagnosis of the MonDM subtype has important implications for prognosis and choice of treatment, family counseling and health management, enabling precision medicine. The main objective was to clinically and molecularly characterize...