ESPE Abstracts

Despite significant advances in the medical management of childhood diseases, glucocorticoids (GCs) continue to be the mainstay of therapy for numerous serious conditions, including hematological malignancies, Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) and inflammatory disorders. In order to understand the natural history of bone development in GC-treated children, a pan-Canadian longitudinal observational research study called "STOPP" (STeroid...

Catch-up growth (CUG) is characterized by a period of supranormal height velocity following a transient period of growth inhibition. The two classical hypotheses on the mechanism are the neuro-endocrine hypothesis (a central mechanism that would recognize the degree of mismatch between actual size and target size) and the growth plate hypothesis (local regulation of growth according to a preset cellular program of senescence, characterized by decreasing growth proliferation ra...

Study of the histopathology of human type 1 and 2 diabetes through the national pancreatic organ donor (nPOD) consortium has yielded interesting new insights that should also aid us in developing improved therapeutic approaches.1. When insulitis is observed, it usually shows a predominance of CD8 T cells, some of which are autoantigen specific (see also Coppieters et al. JEM 2012). It will be therapeutically challenging to remove/prevent CD8 mem...

Background: Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the major cause of mortality in diabetes mellitus type 1 (T1DM). Dyslipidemia will increase this risk. Several guidelines have been published, how to treat dyslipidemia in T1DM, yet some studies have shown that the number of patients who are treated according to these guidelines is low.Objective and hypotheses: To investigate the frequency of dyslipidemia in children and adolescents with T1DM and if they are tr...

The transient activation of the hypothalamus-pituitary-gonadal (HPG) axis shortly after birth has been described as early as in the 70ies. This discovery has since been applied clinically as a ‘window of opportunity’ for diagnostic evaluation of patients suspected of endocrine disorders and differences of sex development. With the advent of increasingly more sensitive and specific analytical methods for peptide and steroid hormones produced in the pituitary, gonads...

Background: In paediatric patients with metabolic bone diseases, measurement of the concentrations of minerals including inorganic phosphate is often indicated, and hypophosphataemia is a clinically manageable biochemical disorder. The clinical interpretation of plasma or serum phosphate concentrations depends, to a certain extent, on the age- and gender-specific reference intervals applicable to the laboratory methods employed.Whereas h...

Background: Genital abnormalities are a source of concern and anxiety to parents and patients and in some cases, for the physicians who may have difficulty making pathological and eventually genetic diagnosis. They range from simple small penis and labial adhesions to the complex genital ambiguity and disorders of sex development.Hypothesis: To determine the genital abnormalities presenting in the Paediatric endocrinology unit of the University of Port H...

Background: Cis-gender females are known to mount stronger immune responses to invading pathogens or vaccines than cis-gender males. However, this is also associated with increased risk of autoimmunity. Little is known about the immunophenotypes of transgender individuals on gender-affirming hormonal treatment, despite growing evidence that hormones influence the immune system. Via the process of class-switch recombination (CSR), B-cell immunoglobulin isotype ...

Aim: Recommendations for replacement glucocorticoids in CAH suggest a dose per body surface area (BSA) of glucocorticoids of 10-15mg/m2/day to maintain a 17-OH Progesterone (17OHP) level of 12-36 nmol/l across all ages. We used longitudinal analysis to assess whether biomarkers and dose of hydrocortisone varied with age in children within the I-CAH registry .Method: This retrospective multi-centre study, inclu...

Aim: Recommendations for the management of Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia (CAH) outline a target 17-OH Progesterone (17OHP) of 12-36nmol/l, but do not specify target concentrations for Androstenedione (D4). We aimed to study the temporal variations of these biomarkers in patients from different geographical regions.Method: This retrospective multi-centre study, including 21 centres (14 countries), analysed serum biomarke...