ESPE Yearbook of Paediatric Endocrinology

To read the full abstract: J Adolesc Young Adult Oncol. 2017;6:294-298The difficulties in defining obesity in childhood cancer survivors have been emphasised. In these patients, body mass index (BMI) has been confirmed to be a poor predictor of body fatness, because of their impaired linear growth, body composition changes (decreased lean mass and fat redistribution) and abdominal adiposity. Th...

To read the full abstract: Obesity 2018;26(4):776-781Here, Twig et al. shed light on an important, but not well investigated facet of the complex, multi-organ system chronic disease simply termed ‘obesity’. Using the large statistical power of this impressive, nation-wide database, the authors demonstrate high hazard ratios for obesity-related kidney mortality in a relatively young cohort...

To read the full abstract: J Clin Endocrinol Metab 2017;102:4184-4190The Northern Finland Birth Cohort 1986 has yielded remarkable data over the last decade. Firstly, they reported that first-trimester antibody positivity is a risk factor for perinatal death, which was not affected by thyroid hormone status. They reported that maternal thyroid dysfunction and TPO-Ab positivity during pregnancy mo...

To read the full abstract: Lancet Diabetes Endocrinol 2017; 5(8):622-667The Lancet Diabetes and Endocrinology Commission provides a comprehensive, evidence-based review of diabetes in sub-Saharan Africa, one of the most important emerging diseases and markers of the global epidemic of non-communicable diseases. The authors provide a detailed analysis of the significant knowledge gaps in t...

To read the full abstract: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 2017:201711889Changing your diet can improve both your health and the environment. This study shows that the national dietary recommendations to reduce intakes of animal products can reduce environmental impacts in most high-income nations. We all recommended diets to our patients, and nations recommend diets to their po...

To read the full abstract: Lancet 2017;389:2473-2481We are all familiar with the ‘placebo’ effect, when the psychological anticipation of a ‘benefit’ of treatment is so strong that it adds to or even outweighs the actual physical benefits. Many doctors have even admitted to prescribing placebo tablets, or “sugar pills” to their patients, for exam...

Brief summary: In utero the embryo and the fetus are protected by different mechanisms from too high levels of maternal thyroid hormones after transplacental passage such as deiodination and sulfatation of T4 and T3 in the placenta as well as in the tissues of the unborn child (1,2). Maternal hyperthyroidism and its treatment with anti-thyroid drugs is associated with different congenital malformation. However, so far, it remains unclear, which malformations are linke...

Brief summary: This article shows that intra-cerebroventricular injections of a recombinant adeno-associated virus expressing MKRN3 resulted in delayed puberty in female mice.MKRN3 loss-of-function mutation is the most frequent cause of familial central precocious puberty (CPP) (1).These authors investigated the effect of MKRN3 overexpression on pubertal timing, by generating a mouse model of neonatal hypothalamic Mkrn3 ov...

Brief summary: This single-centre retrospective study evaluated cortisol responses during febrile episodes in children with cancer. Low cortisol responses were common and were unrelated to current steroid therapy.Random serum cortisol and ACTH were measured in 75 children and adolescents with cancer while admitted for fever during chemotherapy; 47/75 patients received glucocorticoids as part of their treatment (steroid group). A low cortisol response (LC...

Brief summary: In this meta-analysis, data of 2030 patients with idiopathic growth hormone deficiency (IGHD) extracted from 25 studies were reanalyzed for reversal of GHD on GH retesting. The reversibility of IGHD varied depending on GH retest cut-offs and testing time-point/age. Higher GH cut-offs and earlier testing resulted in lower GHD reversal rate, but even with a cut-off of 7.7–10 ng/mL the reversal rate was 55%, and retesting before final height revealed also a re...