ESPE Abstracts

Background: GH insensitivity is caused by disturbances of GH receptor function or inability to transduce the hormone signal. Affected children are severely growth retarded and may also present immune complications when the transducer STAT5B is defective. Only autosomal-recessive STAT5B mutations have been described to date.Clinical case: Two male 14.5 year monozygotic twins presented with heights of 131.5 cm (−5.3 SDS). Bone age of the ind...

Background: Heterozygous loss-of-function variants of fibroblast growth factor receptor 1 (FGFR1) are genetic causes of Combined Pituitary Hormone Deficiency (CPHD), Kallmann syndrome (KS) with anosmia/iposmia, Congenital Hypogonadotropic Hypogonadism (CHH) with normosmia and Septo-Optic Dysplasia. It is well-known that these variants are the main genetic factor underlying the development of CHH and KS; however, they have only occasionally been identified in C...

Background: There is limited data supporting concerns that systemic corticosteroids, prescribed in pregnancy for maternal health reasons, can suppress the neonatal Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Adrenal (HPA) axis. Our study aimed to determine if neonates born to mothers on long-term or high dose steroids are at risk of adrenal suppression.Methodology: Neonates who underwent assessment of adrenal function over a seven-year perio...

Introduction: Differentiation of the external genitalia depends on serum androgen concentrations in the foetal life. The classic form of Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia due to 21-hydroxylase deficiency (21OHD) is the most frequent cause of female genital ambiguity. It is an autosomal recessive disorder due to CYP21A2 mutations that are classified in groups based on their in vitro residual enzymatic activity. The phenotype usually is predicted by the less severe mutatio...

Background: Evaluation of the external genitalia is very important in the routine neonatal examination, since abnormalities of the genitalia give clues to underlying endocrine disorders or serious structural malformations. This is the first report regarding the stretched penile length (SPL) of newborns from Sri Lanka.Objective and hypotheses: The objectives of the study were to document the SPL of healthy term neonates born following an uncomplicated del...

Background: Measuring testicular volume (TV) by orchidometer is a standard method of pubertal staging in boys. A paucity of evidence exists as to its inter and intra-user reliability and the impact of clinicians’ gender, training and experience on the accuracy of measurements.Objective and hypotheses: We engineered prosthetic models of different size testes to investigate the reliability of TV estimation.Method: The study was ...

Background: Approximately 15 million children are born preterm worldwide yearly.Objective and hypotheses: To evaluate spontaneous growth during the first 8 years of life.Hypotheses: Preterm born children have spontaneous recovery of weight and height in the first 8 years of life.Method: Measurements at birth, 6, 12 and 24 months of corrected age and at recall [6.4±0.5 years (5.2–8.0)]. Weight, lengt...

Background: Telomere length at birth is a major determinant of telomere length at later ages, up into senescence. However, the prenatal setting of telomere length is poorly understood. Individuals born large are at lower risk for later-life disorders, such as diabetes, than those born small, a feature of their longer health span being a higher lean mass that provides more muscle strength and is already present in infancy.Objective and hypotheses: To asse...

Introduction: Sex determining region Y (SRY gene) located in chromosome Yp11.3, initiate gonadal differentiation into testes, which subsequently leads to development of Wolffian duct, male external genitalia, and regression of Mullerian duct. Not only SRY, SOX9, FGF9, DAX1, WT1, RSPO1, and SOX10 contribute for gonadal differentiation. Imbalance of expression of above genes in the absence of SRY leads to 46, XX testicular DSD. We describe a case of 46...

Introduction: The wide aromatization of androgens during puberty is responsible for the rapid bone maturation at this age. In this context, the use of aromatase inhibitors (AIs) has been justified by the potential to slow down the advancement of bone age and thus improve growth. For more than two decades, studies have pointed out the validity of AIs to improve the predicted final height (PFH). However, data on near-final height (NFH) of children treated with A...