ESPE Abstracts

Background: X-Linked hypophosphatemic rickets (XLH) is a disorder of phosphate homeostasis, characterized by renal phosphate wasting and hypophosphatemia, with normal to low 1,25-dihydroxy vitamin D3 serum levels. PHEX is the gene defective in XLH and different mutations and genomic rearrangements have been described in different families affected by this disease.Objectives: To detect inactivating mutations in the PHEX g...

Introduction: Obesity is the direct cause of a number of immediate problems during childhood. Recently, fat mass was described as a significant negative predictor of serum iron. Hepcidin is a hormone stimulated by an increase in plasma iron levels and iron deposits in tissues, and decreases iron release from macrophages and duodenal enterocytes into the plasma. This protein prevents excessive iron absorption and iron accumulation in tissues. Ferritin is the most commonly deplo...

Background: Obesity is a worldwide epidemic affecting adults and children. Social changes throughout history have contributed to modifications in nutrition and physical activity levels. These changes in lifestyle affected health, increasing the number of metabolic and cardiovascular diseases. Obese children already have a low grade systemic inflammation as well as markers of increased cardiovascular risk. The endothelial function is an important and early marker of atheroscler...

Background: Obesity in childhood is defined by age- and sex-specific BMI cut-off values. However, BMI does not disclose the distribution of fat mass. Increased abdominal adipose tissue is associated with a higher risk of cardio-metabolic disease in adulthood. Thus, precise measurements of abdominal adipose tissue in children may enable early prevention of disease.Objective and hypotheses: To validate measurements of abdominal adipose tissue by anthropome...

Background: CNS tumours are the most frequent solid tumours in children. In pediatric gliomas, IGF1R nuclear localization was significantly associated with both high grade tumours and increased risk of death and contributed to the aggressive phenotype of glioblastoma by increasing motility and metabolism of tumour cells rather than increasing its proliferation. For children chemotherapy after surgical resection is the mainstay of therapy. However, the best reg...

Background: The mitochondrial enzyme nicotinamide nucleotide transidrogenase (NNT) is essential in the antioxidant defense mechanisms and appears to be essential to the stages of adrenal steroidogenesis that occur inside the mitochondria.Aim: To characterize how mutations in NNT gene impair adrenal steroidogenesis resulting in familial glucocorticoid deficiency (FGD).Methods: Genom...

Background: Although a large number of publications show a high prevalence of Metabolic Syndrome (MS) during childhood, to date, there is no uniform definition for evaluating this condition in children and adolescents. In the pediatric population, there are difficulties for characterizing this condition and the various criteria used might lead to underdiagnosis. In recent years, the triglycerides/HDL (TG/HDL) ratio has been proposed as a new marker.Objec...

Background: In a recent report we have identified multinodular goiter (MNG) as a condition with an increased risk for thyroid malignancy in children and adolescents.Objective and hypotheses: To report the prevalence and characterization of a prospectively and uniformly followed cohort of pediatric patients with MNG and to retrospectively analyze differences between benign and malignant MNG before surgery in order to identify malignancy predictors.<p ...

Introduction: Mutations in the GH1 promoter are a rare cause of isolated GH deficiency (IGHD). In order to find the molecular cause of short stature due to IGHD, three siblings (2 M) born to consanguineous parents without mutations in the GHRHR and GH1 coding regions were screened for mutations in the GH1 promoter and locus control region. All patients harbored two variants (c.−123T>C and −161C>T) in homozygous state in the GH1 promoter, not found in 100 co...

Case Report: Patient 1: a 3.6-yr-old girl presented with very severe hypertriglyceridemia (serum triglyceride level >1000mg/dL) in random sampling in the first year of life. She presented with recurring episodes of abdominal pain, and splenomegaly. There is no history of consanguineous marriage. Maternal and paternal family had history of coronary events at an early age. A genetic panel showed homozygous variant chr8:19.953.365 C>T (p.Ala162Val) in the l...