ESPE Abstracts

Background: Recent studies have found a widespread deficiency of vitamin D during pregnancy. Its significance is still not fully understood, although low Vit-D levels have been associated to increased risk for conditions such as preeclampsia, bacterial vaginosis, neonatal sepsis, and early respiratory infections in the child. Supplementation to the pregnant mother is still a matter of debate, therefore it is important to understand better the causes, risk factors, and possible...

Introduction: Central diabetes insipidus (CDI) is a condition in which large volumes of diluted urine are excreted due to vasopressin deficiency. In most patients, DI is caused by the destruction of neurons in the hypothalamus and the known causes include local inflammation or autoimmune aggression, vascular and infiltrative diseases, as well as compressive masses, trauma or midline cranial malformations. CDI caused by cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection is a very rare condition.<...

Glucose is the preferred metabolite of the brain with 25% of circulating blood glucose in adults destined for cerebral metabolism. It is intuitive then that type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM), a disorder characterised by perturbations in blood glucose (‘dysglycaemia’), should cause acute and chronic brain dysfunction. These cognitive and affective impacts appear to be greatest in the developing brain of children and adolescents with T1DM. Aspects of diabetic dysglycaemi...

Background: In patients with acid-labile subunit (ALS) deficiency, the inability to build ternary complexes results in a marked reduction of circulating total IGF1. Height reduction by heterozygosity is about 1 SD in comparison to wild type. In homozygosity or compound heterozygosity a height loss of −2 to −2.5 SD occurs. This is suggestive of a gene-dose effect. How does treatment with human GH influence height development in relation...

Background: Patients with Klinefelter syndrome (SK) have a 47, XXY karyotype and tall stature as a result of overexpression of the SHOX gene. The case of a patient with peculiar phenotype, microcephaly, proportional short stature and 47, XXY karyotype with a deletion in band p11.3 of one X chromosome is presented.Clinical description: A 2-year, 4 month-old boy was referred for study of growth retardation. The product of a first gestation of 39 weeks of h...

Background: Congenital hypothyroidism (CH) is the most frequent endocrine disorder during neonatal period and delay in diagnosis and treatment leads to irreversible complications. A high L-thyroxine (LT4) dose is recommended for treatment, while the optimal starting dose is still a matter of debate.Objective and hypotheses: The objective of this study was to determine the effects of various starting doses of LT4 on se...

Background: X-Linked Adrenoleucodystrophy (X-ALD) is a rare neurodegenerative disorder characterised by impaired peroxisomal beta-oxidation of very long chain fatty acids (VLCFA; ≧C22) which is reduced to about 30% of control levels. Consequently, there is an accumulation of VLCFA in plasma and tissues, including the white matter of the brain, the spinal cord and adrenal cortex. It is caused by mutation in the ABCD1 gene encoding a peroxisomal transmembrane protein (ALD...

Background: McCune Albright syndrome (MAS) is defined by the classic triad of precocious puberty, fibrous dysplasia of bone and café au lait skin pigmentation. However, the clinical spectrum is often more variable due to mosaic distribution of the postzygotic GNAS-mutation. Hypercortisolism occurs in a minority (5%) of patients. It is most frequently caused by nodular adrenal hyperplasia and can be life-threatening. Decisions on whether clinical management should be conse...

Background: Compliance of patients on GH treatment is very important for the success of the treatment. In a multıcentre study done in Turkey we had shown that compliance decreased at the end of 1st year of treatment which had an adverse effect on growth rate and IGF1 levels.Objective and hypotheses: To evaluate whether doing regular questionnaire to patients on GH has an effect on compliance at long term.Method: A questionnair...

Background: Although it is known that hypoglycaemia could cause severe negative effects on brain development and also infantile spasm, it has not been reported that transient hyperinsulinaemic hypoglycaemia, which spontaneously improves over a short time, may cause infantile spasms. Infantile spasm is a disorder of early childhood typically seen in first year of life characterized by the occurrence of sudden, brief, generally bilateral and symetric motor spasms of muscles of t...