ESPE Abstracts

A 5-year-old Moroccan patient comes to our attention due to impaired gait with pain in the lower limbs, easy fatigue and poor gain in weight and stature. In the previous months he had some episodes of abdominal pain. During our first physical examination he was pale, with diffuse muscular hypotrophy, uncertain gait with an enlarged base, dubious hypertrophy of the calves and Gowers' sign. No varus / valgus of the lower limbs. Symmetrical and normo-evocable osteotendinous ...

Background: Isolated hypocortisolism due to ACTH deficiency is a rare condition that can be caused by mutations in the gene encoding pro-opiomelanocortin (POMC). POMC is the precursor to bioactive peptides (ACTH, β-endorphin, and α-β-γ-MSH). Mutations that inactive POMC typically result in secondary adrenal insufficiency, severe obesity and red hair; fewer than 50 affected individuals have been reported in the literature.Case presenta...

Oculocerebrorenal syndrome of Lowe (OCRL) is an X-linked and multisystem disorder with clinical symptoms of congenital cataracts, severe mental retardation, hypotonia, areflexia, and incomplete Fanconi syndrome of the proximal renal tubules. We report a 15-year-old short stature male with a severe form of OCRL syndrome, diagnosed based on bilateral congenital cataract, proteinuria, tubulopathy, and dysmorphic findings. The physical examination revealed a height of 152 cm (-2.7...

Introduction: Neonatal Diabetes Mellitus (NDM) is characterised by severe hyperglycaemia, usually diagnosed in the first 6 months of life. Genetic diagnosis helps distinguishing between its different causes and between transient (TNDM) and permanent (PNDM) forms, with repercussions on the therapeutic approach and follow-up.Aim: Clinical and molecular characterisation of a series of NMD cases under endocrinological follow...

Background: Congenital hypopituitarism (CH) genetics is highly heterogeneous. The massive use of NGS identified at least 21 desease causing genes. Not fully understood inheritance mechanism, incomplete penetrance and variable expressivity explain the complexity of phenotype-genotype correlations. To further complicate the scenario, the co-occurence of more than one desease-causing genes variants can geopardize the phenotype. Herein, we report the heterogeneous...

Introduction: Non-communicable diseases are recognized as a major cause of morbidity in low and middle-income countries (LMICs). There are 21 francophone countries (>100 million speak French) in Sub-Saharan Africa (FSSA). We identified only 19 pediatric endocrinologists in FSSA (37% in Cameroon and Senegal) mostly trained in France or through the successful anglophone “Paediatric Endocrine Training Centers for (West) Africa” (PETC[W]A) offered i...

Objective: Premature ovarian insufficiency (POI) is rare in adolescents, most commonly caused by genetic defects or cytotoxic therapy. The aim is to present the case of an adolescent girl with normal pubertal progress and irregular menstrual cycle, followed by amenorrhea.Case presentation: A 15 9/12-years-old girl presented because of lack of menses for the previous 21 months. She reported that she had menarche at the ag...

Background: Vernal keratoconjunctivitis (VKC) patients have an elevated incidence of growth hormone deficiency and thyroid diseases. Nevertheless, no auxological data are available in these subjects.Objective and hypotheses: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the auxological features in a cohort of patients with VKC.Method: This study included 179 Caucasian VKC patients (119 males, 60 females; mean age 9.63±2.98 years) ...

Background: Down syndrome (DS) is the most common genetic (chromosomal) mental retardation syndrome. In these patients, several environmental and hormonal factors contribute to low bone mineral density (BMD), among these factors, vitamin D may play a significant role in the health of patients with DS. However, poor studies have evaluated 25-hydroxy cholecalciferol (25(OH)D) levels in DS.Objective and hypotheses: The purpose of this study was to assess se...

Background: Unlike precocious puberty, early and/or fast puberty have been less studied, despite the fact that this disorder may be associated to an organic lesion at CNS level.Objective and hypotheses: We illustrate a case of early and fast puberty in a girl with an occult intra-cranial tumor.Method: The girl was the first child of non-consanguineous, Italian parents. The family had a positive history of early puberty. Target heig...