ESPE Abstracts

Background: Central precocious puberty (CPP) is a premature activation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal axis. One of its negative effects is lower final adult height (FAH) due to premature epiphyseal closure. GnRH analogues act by desensitizing GnRH receptors and stopping the progression of puberty and prolonging growth period.Objectives: We aimed to evaluate the effect of the GnRH analogue on FAH and identify facto...

Introduction: Recently novel approaches, through implementation of next-generation sequencing (NGS) in clinical practice for genetic evaluation of idiopathic short stature, has permitted to identify new variants of genes which modulate function of growth plate, including heterozygous mutations of the aggrecan gene. Aggrecan, a large chondroitin sulfated proteoglycan, is a major structural component of the extracellular matrix of cartilage, including growth pla...

Background: Transient neonatal diabetes (TNDM) is commonly caused by a methylation loss in the 6q24 region, either in isolation or as multiple-loci demethylation due to ZFP57 gene mutation. TNDM is biphasic; usually resolves after 2–3 months but often recurs between age 4 and late adolescence.Case: The boy was born at 38 weeks of gestation (birth weight 3340 g, healthy consanguineous Turkish parents, unremarkable pregnancy). He presented at...

Background: Virilization at puberty in girls remains a challenge. Several differential diagnoses must be considered including disorders of sex development (DSD) and tumors.Case Report: We report an 11.5-year-old girl who was referred to our center for progressive cliteromegaly since 6 months. Past medical history was remarkable for prematurity of 36 weeks gestation and for mild ongoing psychomotor delay. At presentation ...

Background: At present, treatment of „classic" congenital adrenal hyperplasia (21-hydroxylase-deficiency, 21OHD) consists of glucocorticoid and mineralocorticoid replacement. However, often androgen excess and its negative metabolic impact are difficult to control without accepting glucocorticoid overtreatment, especially in adolescence. In healthy subjects oral contraceptives (containing ethinylestradiol) increase cortisol binding capacity and free c...

Objectives: Deficiency of the short stature homeobox-containing (SHOX) gene is a potential etiology of short stature in children. The phenotypic spectrum of SHOX deficiency disorders, caused by haploinsufficiency of the SHOX-gene and inherited in a pseudo-autosomal dominant manner, is highly variable, even within the same family, ranging from nonspecific short stature to Leri-Weill dyschondrosteosis (LWD). Short stature, mesomelia and Madelung deformity define the classic clin...

Background: In children, congenital hyperinsulinism is the most common cause for endogenous hyperinsulinaemic hypoglycaemia (HH). Beyond infancy other diagnoses may be considered, such as insulinoma, an insulin-secreting neuroendocrine tumour (NET) arising mostly from the pancreas. The latter is a rare cause of HH in children. The estimated incidence of insulinoma is 1:250’000 person-years of all age groups with a median age at diagnosis of 47 years. Herein, we report an ...

Background: Human milk is considered the most advantageous source of nourishment for infants. Although there is a growing body of evidence showing that human milk feeding fosters early neurodevelopment, the underlying process is still not completely known. Indeed, clinical and animal research has linked human milk to enhanced myelination in the infant's central nervous system, however, access to human oligodendrocytes and neurons in the early stages of develop...

Background: A good metabolic control in preschool children with type 1 diabetes (DM1) is particularly challenging, being easier and safer with continuous subcutaneous insulin infusion (CSII) compared with multiple daily injections (MDI).Objective and hypotheses: Evaluate and compare metabolic control of preschool children with DM1, before and 9 months after CSII therapy.Method: Analytical retrospective study of children under the a...

In Italy, treatment of children with CP is not centralized. We collected data of 117 patients (pts) (M/F 56/41) with CP diagnosed after 01/01/2000, followed-up in 14 centres of paediatric endocrinology belonging to the I.S.P.E.D. Five centres provided data on more than 10 pts (range 12-19), while the remaining on 1-9. 46 pts were diagnosed between 2000-2010 and 71 afterwards. Follow-up was 7.5±4.1 yrs.Results. Histology was adamanti...