ESPE Abstracts

Background: Continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) devices are novel tools to measure the impact of dietary intake on glucose rhythms/metabolism in children. There is a significant gap in the literature on glycemic response in healthy, term infants and young children up to 2 years of age.Objective: To investigate glucose excursions in response to infant feeding, using CGM in healthy 6–12-month-old infants.<p class...

Background: Children born SGA are known to develop cardiometabolic conditions in adulthood1. Nothing is known about the relationship of the transcriptome (gene expression) and epigenome (DNA methylation) to birth size and the future development of cardiometabolic disease.Aim: To identify, I) differences and functional links between epigenome age-7years, transcriptome age-9years associated and ...

Background: Current data from genome wide association studies (GWAS) explains 24.6% of the variation in adult height from 3290 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs)1. Data on the genetic control of growth velocity during childhood is more limited and no previous studies have linked childhood growth to changes in the transcriptome (gene expression) or epigenome (DNA methylation). Here we present a systems biology approach to understand mid-child...

Background: Currently, data on the diagnostic yield of targeted gene panels using next generation sequencing (NGS) in children with short stature of undefined aetiology (SSUA) are limited. EPIGROW (ClinicalTrials.gov ID NCT00710307) was a prospective European epidemio-genetic study in which a targeted NGS panel including 69 genes associated with short stature (e.g. primordial growth disorders and skeletal dysplasias) was performed in 263 patients and 263 controls. In these pat...

Background: Inter-individual differences in the metabolism of cortisol have been postulated to emerge during puberty, and might be explained by a complex interplay of genetic and environmental factors. The aim of the current study was to estimate the relative contributions of genetic, shared environmental, and unshared environmental factors on cortisol metabolism in a longitudinal twin cohort assessed at pre-pubertal, mid-pubertal and post-pubertal ages....

South Asian (SA), British-born adults have increased cardiovascular (CV) risk factors compared to White Europeans (WE). Early detection of CV risk may allow intervention. The Manchester HAPO (Hyperglycaemia and Adverse Pregnancy Outcomes) cohort showed babies of SA origin were born significantly shorter, lighter and had a lower mean BMI SDS than those of WE origin. We now report ethnic differences in body composition and CV markers in childhood. Measurements on 102 children (5...

2 siblings were referred for evaluation fo short stature and failure to thrive. Both were born of 3rd degree consanguinity, first and second in birth order. the first sibling was 2 1/2 year old at time of referral and had birthweight of 3.1 kg and had gross motor delay. Present height was 65 cm (SDS −6.2 S.D.)and weight was 6 kg (<3rd centile) Second sibling was 1.5 years old, with gross motor delay with height of 57 cm (SDS −6.5 S.D.</sma...

Background: SREAT is a rare entity in children, with about 60 cases described to date. It is characterised by acute encephalopathy, elevated anti-thyroid antibodies and exclusion of other causes of encephalopathy like infection, tumour, toxic or metabolic diseases. Typical presentations in children include behaviour changes, psychosis and seizures. The role of anti-thyroid antibodies in the pathogenesis is not clearly understood, and the titre level does not predict severity o...

Background: Measuring testicular volume (TV) by orchidometer is a standard method of pubertal staging in boys. A paucity of evidence exists as to its inter and intra-user reliability and the impact of clinicians’ gender, training and experience on the accuracy of measurements.Objective and hypotheses: We engineered prosthetic models of different size testes to investigate the reliability of TV estimation.Method: The study was ...

Background: The phases of human growth are associated with gene expression (GE) changes1, raising the possibility that rhythmic patterns of GE occur throughout childhood.Objective: In this study, we have assessed time-series patterns of GE profiles associated with age to characterise oscillations.Methods: GE analysis was conducted on cells of lymphoid origin from normal individuals through childhood (n=87, 43 ma...