ESPE Abstracts

Background: A neonate, born at 34 weeks gestation by caesarean section for foetal distress, was severely growth retarded at birth. Deranged liver functions were noted at birth with (alanine transaminase (ALT), aspartate transamninase (AST) and gamma-glutamyl transfererase (GGT) recorded as 102, 228 and 1078 U/l respectively. The GGT rose to a peak of 3877 U/l at 6 months of age. The clinical course of the neonate was associated with failure to thrive and intermittent hyperglyc...

Background: Ullrich-Turner-Syndrome is usually characterized by typical morphological features. Short status, delayed bone age in childhood and gonadal dysgenesis with delayed or lacking pubertal development, amenorrhoea and infertility. Other symptoms like thyroid dysfunction, heart defects, diabetes, behavioural or learning problems vary. The genotype/phenotype correlation may be poor. Especially in UTS mosaicism, spontaneous puberty may occur.Objectiv...

Background: For a few years now tubeless disposable patch pumps are available for insulin therapy.Objective and hypotheses: Alarmed by initially non explainable beginning metabolic decompensation of two children with type 1 diabetes during their hospital stay for the initial therapy adjustment with patch pumps and alarmed by patients’ reports of frequent premature pump changes and alarms, we decided to scrutinize the patch pumps under laboratory con...

Background: Klippel–Feil syndrome (KFS) is characterized by congenital fusion of cervical vertebrae and has a prevalence of 1:50 000. The phenotypic expression is variable, sometimes presenting with extraskeletal symptoms.Case report: A girl was referred at the cronological age (CA) of 10.3 years with a suspected diagnosis of Turner syndrome, due to the presence of webbed neck and progressive deceleration of growth velocity. The girl, born in Russia...

Background: Over the past 20 years there is growing evidence that onset of puberty and changes in body proportions occur at an earlier age, especially in girls. Several studies have suggested this trend is linked to increasing rates of overweight and obese children. However, data on delayed pubertal trends are scant.Objective and hypotheses: To characterize body proportions of children evaluated for pubertal disorders.Method: Retro...

Background: Precocious puberty, pubertal development in girls before 8 years, has considerable biological, psychosocial, and long-term health implications. It is classically ascribed to the premature activation of the hypothalamic-pituitary–gonadal axis, and hence an LH response >5 U/l in the LHRH test. Whilst this group of patients is well understood, there is a paucity of literature characterising patients who show pubertal development not driven by LH, atypical pre...

Objectives: We designed a longitudinal study to investigate the association between central pubertal activation with age at the appearance of clinical signs of puberty. We, therefore, assessed nocturnal gonadotropin secretion which can be detected in the form of total luteinizing hormone (LH) immunoreactivity in the daytime- and sleeptime-excreted urine.Methods: Thirty healthy volunteers (17 boys and 13 girls, aged 3.4&n...

Key Words: obesity, subclinical hypothyroidism, childrenIntroduction: There is a growing interest in the relationship between obesity and thyroid dysfunction, even more so nowadays when obesity has become a widespread global issue. Initially believed to be the cause of obesity, the risk of developing hypothyroidism may be increased in obese children due to adaptive mechanisms. The study aims to evaluate the prevalence of...

We report a male patient born small for gestational age (birth weight 2090 g, -2.97 SDS; birth length 43.5 cm, -3.37 SDS), with dysmorphic features (triangular face, low-set, posteriorly rotated ears, pectus excavatum, large anterior fontanel) who presented with seizures at the age of 4 weeks. The child was treated with antiepileptic drugs (Levetiracetam, Midazolam, Phenobarbital, carbamazepine) for 1 year until a severe hypocalcemia (Calcium 6.4 mg/dl, ionised calcium 0.78 mm...

Giant prolactinomas are rare tumours, with a prevalence of 0.5–4.4% among all pituitary tumours. In the literature, relatively few series describing their management and outcomes are available; moreover, only individual case reports of giant prolactinomas in children have been documented. We report a 10-year-old boy presented with painless progressive vision loss, insidious in onset, and bitemporal headache of six mounths duration. On physical examination; height: 134.2 ...