ESPE Abstracts

Background: Disorders of sex development (DSD) are often due to disruption of the genetic programs that regulate gonad development. Some genes have been identified in these developmental pathways such as DAX-1, SOX-9, GATA-4 and others. The GATA-4 gene, located on chromosome 8p23.1, encodes GATA-binding protein 4 (GATA-4), a transcription factor that is essential for cardiac and gonadal development and sexual differentiation. Congenital heart disease (CHD) and...

The epidemic spread of obesity in children has triggered the commitment of scientific research, which has allowed us to understand its genetic basis; the different forms of genetic obesity share common clinical aspects, making it difficult to achieve a molecular diagnosis based only on our clinical suspicion. We report a female patient presented with neonatal hypotonia, hyperphagia and early onset excessive weight gain, strabismus and high hypermetropia. Regarding her neurodev...

We report a pediatric patient with an undiagnosed and complex medical manifestation who was shown to have paternal isodisomy at chromosome 7. Our case is a female patient presented for increasing overweight, parotid hemangioma and gastroesophageal reflux with laryngomalacia. She was born at 35+4 weeks of gestation and her birth weight, length and occipitofrontal circumference (OFC) were 2500 g, 49 cm and 33 cm, respectively. At the time of our visit she was 16 months old, ...

Central diabetes insipidus (CDI) in children is caused by brain tumors, Langerhans cell histiocytosis (LCH), trauma, infections, or genetic abnormalities in about 60% of the cases. In the remaining 40%, CDI is idiopathic even after detailed clinical and radiological investigations. Aim of the study was to assess whether measurement of serum antibodies against human growth hormone (GH) could aid in the identification of the etiological factors for CDI.<p class="abst...

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&#...

Background: Data regarding epidemiology and management of Diabetic Ketoacidosis (DKA) in Italian children with T1D at disease onset are lacking.Method: From 1/1/2012 to 31/12/2013 a survey on DKA was conducted in all paediatric Centres belonging to the Italian Society for Pediatric Diabetology and Endocrinology. DKA was defined according to the ISPAD criteria. The following data were collected: treatment according ISPAD protocol yes or not, type of rehyd...

Background: Primary IGF1 deficiency can result from molecular defects in genes encoding for the GHR, IGF1, STAT5b and ALS. Heterozygous, activating mutations in the STAT3 gene have been recently described in children with severe growth failure associated with a spectrum of early-onset autoimmune disease.Case presentation: We report the molecular diagnosis in two unrelated patients with severe growth failure and IGF1 deficiency: P1, a 3.6 year ol...

Introduction: Despite the high detection rate of GNAS molecular defects, about 30% of patients with a clinical suspect of PHP/AHO still lack a confirming molecular diagnosis. Mutations in genes encoding proteins crucial for cAMP-mediated signaling have been recently detected in a small subset of patients negative for GNAS defects, showing a phenotypic overlap between PHP and Acrodysostosis.Clinical case pres...

Background: The annual worldwide incidence of childhood adrenocortical tumors (ACT) ranges from 0.3 to 0.38/million children below the age of 15 years. Only 1–2% of them are feminizing ACT occurring in prepubertal boys and presenting with gynecomastia that normalizes after tumor removal.Case report: We present a case of a feminizing ACT. The boy was referred for bilateral gynecomastia, appeared 6 months before, at the chronological age (CA) of 7.5 y...

Background: Klippel–Feil syndrome (KFS) is characterized by congenital fusion of cervical vertebrae and has a prevalence of 1:50 000. The phenotypic expression is variable, sometimes presenting with extraskeletal symptoms.Case report: A girl was referred at the cronological age (CA) of 10.3 years with a suspected diagnosis of Turner syndrome, due to the presence of webbed neck and progressive deceleration of growth velocity. The girl, born in Russia...