ESPE Abstracts

A 15-year-old boy, an active sportsperson, presented to an orthopaedic surgeon with a painful left elbow. He had no history of preceding trauma, had full range of motion of his elbow and was systemically well. Imaging demonstrated extra articular calcification at the distal humerus. Serum phosphate was elevated at 2.53mmol/l [1.10-1.80] with calcium 2.48mmol/l [2.10-2.60] and tubular reabsorption of phosphate of 94.6% [82-100%]. He was then referred for endocrine assessment, w...

Background: Severe congenital growth hormone deficiency (cGHD) is a rare but potentially life-threatening condition. Even though random growth hormone (GH) can confirm cGHD during the first week of life, the diagnosis remains extremely challenging in the absence of reliable reference values in healthy neonates and thus of a best diagnostic cut-off.Aims: First, to provide solid reference values for GH concentrations in te...

Achondroplasia is a rare genetic condition caused by a recurrent pathogenetic variant in the FGFR3 gene resulting in short limb skeletal dysplasia. Due to the wide-ranging anomalies associated with achondroplasia (both peculiar clinical features and complications), a multidisciplinary team is often required for ongoing care, although the nature of specialists involved differs among countries. Despite a European consensus on principles for the management of achondropla...

An 11 year 8-month-old girl presented to her oncologist with recent voice change and increased leg hair growth. She had a past history of pelvic rhabdomyosarcoma in 2012, at age 2, with relapse and local metastasis at age 4. Prior to original tumour treatment, oophoropexy had been performed, aiming to prevent ovarian radiation exposure. At time of the new complaint, she was receiving a trial treatment. Puberty was reported to have commenced at age 10, with 6-months of increase...

Introduction: Hashimoto’s thyroiditis (HT) is one of the most common autoimmune diseases in childhood. Despite its frequency, there are still controversies concerning the spontaneous evolution and presentation in childhood. Aim and methods: this is a retrospective study aiming to evaluate clinical and hormonal features at diagnosis and auxological parameters after 3 years in subjects with Severe Autoimmune Hypothyroidism (SAH). We defined severe hypothyr...

Introduction: There is considerable variation in practice when assessing adrenal function in adrenal insufficiency; duration of glucocorticoid defined to confer risk, early morning cortisol assay (EMC), Synacthen test (ST) - both low dose (LDST) (1microgram) or standard dose (SDST) (36microgram/kg [maximum 250micrograms]) and symptomatology. At our tertiary children’s hospital, even between departments, there is variation in those identified as being at ...

Background: Extra Uterine Growth Restriction (EUGR) represents a serious comorbidity in infants born very low birth weight (VLBW). In fact, failure in postnatal growth and malnutrition at vulnerable ages can interfere with growth recovery and neurodevelopment at older ages.Hypothesis: Aim of the study was to assess whether and how the postnatal early growth patterns of VLBW may affect later growth, spontaneous motility a...

Prader Willi Syndrome (PWS) is a rare neuro-genetic disorder inherited as a result of lack of expression in 15q11-13 gene and 70% are paternally inherited. Characteristic features are dysmorphism, behavioural problems, infantile hypotonia, short stature, hypothalamic dysfunction, hyperphagia and morbid obesity. The long-term morbidity and mortality depend on hypothalamic dysfunction and obesity. While multidisciplinary care is essential, growth hormone (GH) is a recognized...

Introduction: Klinefelter syndrome (KS) is a form of aneuploidy resulting from 2 or more X chromosomes in a male. The most common karyotype is 47, XXY. KS affects physical and intellectual development to varying degrees, commonly causing hypo-development of secondary sexual characters and high stature.Case Report: JLV, male, 3 year 1 month age, the first child of a young non-consanguineous couple, was referred to the ped...

Background: Achondroplasia is the commonest type of skeletal dysplasia with an incidence of 1 in 20,000 and is due to recurrent and dominantly transmitted, activating mutations in Fibroblast Growth Factor Receptor 3 (FGFR3). Complications during infancy include foramen magnum stenosis and hydrocephalus which may lead to neurological morbidity and sudden unexplained mortality. Early detection and appropriate neurosurgical management can prevent these complications. How...