ESPE Abstracts

Background: Autoimmune’s thyroiditis (AT) is the most common cause of thyroid diseases in children and adolescents with a peak in early to mid-puberty (prevalence of 0.3–1.2%). Previous studies showed a high rates of familiarity for autoimmune disease (AD) and co-existing autoimmunity in AT subjects.Objective and hypotheses: Aim of our study is to investigate familiarity for AD and co-existing autoimmunity in a large cohort of pediatric AT pati...

Multiple Endocrine Neoplasia Type 1 (MEN1) is an inherited autosomal dominant disorder caused by mutations in the MEN1 tumor suppressor gene. Penetrance increases with age. It combines mainly hyperparathyroidism, adenomas of the pancreas and pituitary gland. The prevalence is about 2/100 000. Diagnosis in children is rare except in the case of family screening. We report the diagnosis of a familial MEN1 whose index case was an adolescent girl investigated because of hypoglycae...

Background: The increase of global childhood obesity has led to an increase of associated co-morbidities also at a young age. The pro-inflammatory state and insulin resistance are two master regulators of several complications, including hypertension and pre-diabetes frequently connected in a complex crosstalk.Aim: To evaluate the relationship between glucose alterations and blood pressure and the pathogenetic involvemen...

Background: Thyroid hormones (TH) play multiple effects on glucose metabolism. Some recent studies carried out in adult patients suggested an association between altered sensitivity to TH and type 2 diabetes, obesity, and metabolic syndrome. No studies are currently available on the presence of altered sensitivity to the action of TH in youths with prediabetes.Objective: To evaluate the relationship between sensitivity t...

Background: Congenital hypopituitarism (CH) is characterized by a deficiency of one or more pituitary hormones. Mutations in the genes coding for transcription factors, such HESX1, involved in the development of the pituitary, determine a highly variable phenotype which may include severe midline defects, septo-optic dysplasia and other congenital abnormalities. A small number of HESX1 variants have been identified in humans. The phenotype sh...

Background: Precocious puberty (PP) in girls is most frequently an idiopathic gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH)-dependent PP, being thelarche the typical first sign. It is well established that increased dehydroepiandrosterone sulphate (DHEAS) levels are associated with premature adrenarche and may characterize PP too. However, its relationship with signs of hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal (HPG) axis activation and estrogen exposure is still to be elucidate...

Background: Pre-eclampsia is associated with important complications for both mother and baby in the short term, but there are limited data about its long-term effects on offspring metabolism. Thus, we aimed to assess whether maternal pre-eclampsia was associated with adverse effects on metabolism and body composition in the offspring in childhood.Methods: We studied healthy pre-pubertal children (aged 4–10 years) b...

Objectives: To investigate changes in levels of autoantibodies(Abs) against 21-hydroxylase(21OH) in APECED patients and in patients with isolated primary autoimmune adrenal insufficiency (AI) over time after manifestation of AI.Methods: 24 patients with APECED with AI and 5 patients with isolated autoimmune AI were recruited. APECED was confirmed by finding at least two major components of the disease and/or two mutation...

Background: Prader-Willi syndrome (PWS) is a complex, multisystem disorder that arises from lack of expression of paternally imprinted genes on chromosome 15q11-q13. Its major clinical features include neonatal hypotonia, short stature, developmental delay, hyperphagia, childhood onset obesity, hypothalamic endocrinopathy and characteristic appearance. It is known that due to severe obesity PWS patients are prone to develop type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), whi...

McCune-Albright syndrome (MAS) is a rare disorder caused by somatic mutations in GNAS gene leading to fibrous dysplasia (FD), cafe-au-lait spots and hyperfunctioning endocrinopathies. The common feature of MAS in girls is peripheral precocious puberty (PP) with the recurrent ovary cysts. Few cases of ovary tumors have been described to date.8,5 year-old girl with MAS is closely observed in our centre since the age 4,5, when the diagnosis was est...