ESPE Abstracts

Background: The genetic etiology of non-syndromic HI remains unknown in over 20% of all cases, and over 50% of diazoxide-responsive cases. Non-coding variants in HK1 have been suggested to cause HI by linkage-analysis (Pinney et al., 2008). More recently, variants within a regulatory region of HK1 intron 2 were reported in 17 individuals with HI (Wakeling et al., 2022). These variants have been proposed to cause HI by disrup...

Introduction: Precocious puberty (PP) is defined as the appearance of thelarche before the age of 8 years, in girls. The gold standard for the diagnosis is represented by the increase of LH level after stimulation with native GnRH, but a feasible alternative involves the administration of GnRH analogues. This test is poorly standardised and currently literature lacks of defined values to confirm the activation of the hypothalamic-gonadal axis, since they depen...

We present the case of a 11-years-old girl who came to our attention for a first critical episode lasting a few minutes, with spontaneous resolution, described as a generalized clonic tonic crisis, which occurred in full well-being. An electroencephalogram (EEG) was performed which showed focal epileptiform anomalies in the right temporal center that spread evoked by hyperpnea and eye closure and an EEG after sleep deprivation that showed an accentuation of the anomalies in ph...

Backgroud: SarsCov2 infection began to spread worldwide since December 2019 and, on March 2020, the World Health Organization characterized its related disease, named COVID-19, as a pandemic. In Italy, to contain the spread of infection a severe lockdown from March 10th, 2020 to May 4th, 2020 was instituted. Other less severe restrictions were imposed in the winter 2020-2021 and in the spring 2021. The containment measures caused a series of consequences for t...

Background: Premature pubarche refers to the appearance of pubic hair without other signs of puberty or virilization before 8 years in girls and 9 years in boys. The etiology of premature pubarche is not known. It has been suggested that an early maturation of the zona reticularis of the adrenal cortex is at the basis of premature pubarche, leading to an increase of adrenal androgens to levels that are normally seen in early puberty. In alternative, in children with normal and...

Background: Congenital proopiomelanocortin deficiency (POMC) gene mutations cause early-onset obesity, hyperphagia and ACTH deficiency. In the subjects with this picture, neuropsychiatric (NP) features were rarely reported. Many Authors described an appetite loss during the topiramate treatment.Objective and hypotheses: To discuss NP features observed in a POMC deficient patient and to propose a therapeutic attempt to reduce the hyperphagia.<p class=...

Background: The syndrome of inappropriate antidiuresis (SIAD) is one of the most common causes of hyponatremia: it’s a disorder of sodium and water balance, characterized by urinary dilution impairment and hypotonic hyponatremia, in the absence of renal disease or any non-osmotic stimulus, able to induce antidiuretic hormone (ADH) release. SIAD can be manifestation of a wide range of diseases, including cancer, head trauma, hydrocephalus and epilepsy. Usually transient an...

Background: Cantù syndrome is a rare disorder characterized by congenital hypertrichosis, neonatal macrosomia, a distinct osteochondrodysplasia, and cardiomegaly. Other findings described are vascular abnormalities, pulmonary hypertension, generalized edema, mild learning disability and behavioral problems. Cantù syndrome is related to an heterozygous pathogenic variant in ABCC9 or KCNJ8, which can be inherited in an autosominal dominant manner or d...

Background: DLK1 (PREF1) is a key inhibitor of adipogenesis and adipocyte differentiation. Adipose tissue expansion depends on adequate adipocyte differentiation. However, whether lower DLK1 expression facilitates adipose tissue expansion following fetal growth restriction is so far unknown.Objective and hypotheses: To study the expression of DLK1 in the adipose tissue of prenatally growth-restricted rats and its relat...

Background: OTX2 is expressed in the human brain and plays a key role in the eye development. OTX2 mutations are reported in patients with ano/microphtalmia, optic nerve or optic chiasm hypoplasia, ocular coloboma and retinal dystrophies, associated in some cases with brain or pituitary abnormalities.Objective and hypotheses: Most of OTX2 mutations are nonsense or frameshift, more rarely missense mutations occur.Method: We...