ESPE Abstracts

The extent and quality of parental care that children receive greatly influences their development, impacting their physical and psychological growth, their educational and social achievement, and their disease risk as both children and adults. It is thus remarkable that around 25% of children are physically abused worldwide. Parenting is a complex behavior, and we still know little about the causes and mechanisms by which people differ in their parental behaviors. To learn mo...

Epiphyseal growth plates, tiny cartilage discs located to the end of long bones, are necessary for longitudinal growth of the skeleton. When and why these structures appeared as individual organs was not very clear until recently. Bringing together an evolutionary approach with comparative analysis, mathematical modelling and both physical and biological experiments allowed to reveal that spatial allocation of the growth plate reduces mechanical stresses within the structure, ...

Background: Sex differences in disease susceptibility might be explained by a sexual dimorphism in hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis activity, which has been postulated to emerge during puberty. The aim of this study is to assess the contribution of pubertal development to sexual dimorphism in cortisol production and metabolism.Methods: Participants, born between 1995 and 1996, were enrolled from the population-based N...

Background: Patients born small for gestational age (SGA) with additional syndromic features to short stature are likely to present with genetic causes.Aim: To perform a clinical and genetic-molecular investigation of a group of syndromic SGA patients without catch-up growth.Methods: We selected 118 patients born SGA [birth weight and/or length standard deviation score (SDS) ≤−2 for gestational age] without catch-up gro...

Background: Management of patients with CAH remains challenging. There is increasing evidence to suggest that failure to optimize treatment during childhood not only affects final height but also leads to psychological and psychiatric problems. Previous qualitative structural T2-weighted MRI studies have identified white matter hyper-intensities in up to 46% of CAH patients. The nature and functional relevance of these abnormalities remains unknown.Objec...

Background: Mutations in the gene encoding the Chromodomain Helicase DNA-binding protein 7 (CHD7) are found in 60% of patients with CHARGE Syndrome (Coloboma, Heart Defects, Choanal Atresia, Retarded growth and development, Genital hypoplasia, Ear abnormalities and/or hearing problems) and in 6% of patients with Kallmann syndrome.Objectives and hypotheses: To describe a novel CHD7 mutation and its clinical presentation.<p class="abs...

Background: Heterozygous mutations in the IGF1 receptor (IGF1R) are often associated with congenital IGF1 resistance, causing variable degrees of intrauterine growth retardation (IUGR) and postnatal short stature. To date, only one homozygous IGF1R mutation has been reported, in a child presenting with severe growth failure, mild intellectual impairment, microcephaly, dysmorphic features, and cardiac malformations.Objective: We now repo...

Introduction: Congenital nasal pyriform aperture stenosis (CNPAS) is an increasingly recognised cause of upper airway obstruction associated with holoprosencephaly, of which solitary median maxillary central incisor (SMMCI) is the least severe form. Studies have described pituitary abnormalities in up to 40%. We aimed to determine the use of baseline endocrine investigations and MRI brain in assessing endocrine dysfunction.Method: Retrospective casenote ...

Background: Neonatal diabetes (NDM) is defined as diabetes developing before 6 months of age, affecting one in 100 000 live births. Permanent NDM is diagnosed in the first 6 months of life with no remission. The majority have a mutation in the ATP-sensitive potassium (KATP) channel (KCNJ11 in 31%, ABCC8 in 13%). Autosomal dominant and recessive forms are described. The majority of patients with NDM caused by KATP mutations respond to sulphonylureas.<p...

Background: Many children with short stature (defined as height SDS <−2S.D.) have no identified cause for their growth impairment and are classified as either small for gestational age or idiopathic short stature depending on birth size. Whole exome sequencing (WES) is a useful tool to identify new genetic diagnoses in this group. Here we describe a recurrent NDUFB3 mutation in children with intra-uterine growth retardation, short stature and ...