Endocrine Abstracts

Introduction: A rise in serum insulin levels during GH therapy is reported. Insulin resistance is a risk factor for type 2 diabetes, atherosclerosis, dyslipidemia, and hypertension. Few data describe insulin secretion and lipids after the end of GH therapy.Subjects and methods: Aim of our study was to evaluate changes in insulin secretion, sensitivity and lipid profile in children with isolated GHD longitudinally followed during rhGH treatment. We measur...

Introduction: Obesity and connected metabolic alterations are a growing problem in paediatric age, but few data are available in the youngest population. Poor evidences on metabolic syndrome (MS) definition are present in childhood and the most used definitions are those of the modified National Cholesterol Education Program and of the International Diabetes Federation (IDF). Aim of our study was to evaluate the presence of MS in obese children using these two definitions and ...

Insulin sensitivity in GHD patients tends to decrease with age and variations in body composition. Several indices of insulin sensitivity have been considered and among these HOMA, ISI and QUICKI are based on mathematical calculations taking into account glucose and/or insulin levels either in basal conditions or after OGTT. Aim of present study was to validate the different indices in a population of pre-pubertal GHD children (n=66) by ROC curve analysis. All patients ...

Key circulating molecules that link the emerging role of vitamin-D to pediatric obesity and its co-morbidities remain unclear. To identify potentially involved regulators, this study analyzed plasma proteoma from obese children dichotomized by 25OH-vitamin D (25OHD) levels and upon vitamin-D3 therapy in 25OHD deficient subjects.A total of 42 obese children (M/F=18/24, bmi>95° centile) were selected and divided according to 25OHD levels into defi...

Introduction: A rise in serum insulin levels during GH therapy is reported. Insulin resistance is a risk factor for type 2 diabetes, atherosclerosis, dyslipidemia, and hypertension. Few data describe insulin secretion and sensitivity after the end of GH therapy in children.Methods: Aim of our study was to evaluate changes in insulin secretion and sensitivity in 24 children with isolated GHD at 3 times: i) during the last year of therapy (T0); ii) 6 month...

Introduction: Higher cortisol levels and, in particular, hyperactivity of the HPA axis might play a role in the development of MS at least in adults. Data on the pediatric age are scanty.Aim of our study was to evaluate ACTH and cortisol association with MS, its components, phenotypic parameters, family history of metabolic derangements in pediatric obesity.Methods: Cross-sectional study. 271 Caucasian overweight or obese children ...

Introduction: Aim of this study was to assess the prevalence of subclinical hypothyroidism in a paediatric population of overweight and obese children and its association with metabolic parameters and with metabolic syndrome (MS).Subjects and methods: Clinical and metabolic evaluations in 600 overweight and obese children and adolescents (310 females, 290 males, 260 prepubertal, 240 pubertal, mean age: 10.7±3.1 years) were performed. MS was defined ...

Introduction: Vitamin D plays an important role on musculoskeletal composition, but new evidences highlight others possible pleiotropic effects on many tissues and also metabolic functions. Vitamin D insufficiency should be associated with all-cause mortality, in particular with cardiovascular disease and metabolic syndrome. International studies suggested that 25(OH)D level sufficiency should be established at 30 ng/ml, insufficiency between 30 and 20 ng/ml and deficiency low...

Introduction: The risk association between the insulin like growth factor-1 (IGF1) and cardiovascular risk is inconclusive in adults and under-explored in the pediatric population. We aimed to investigate the associations between serum concentrations of IGF1 and cardiovascular risk factors in obese children and adolescents.Methods: Cross-sectional study. Clinical and metabolic evaluations including an oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) were performed at ...

GH has well documented insulin antagonistic effects. By inference, GHD may be expected to result in increased insulin sensitivity. Young GHD children have a tendency to both fasting and readly provoked hypoglycaemia probably resulting from impaired hormonale counter-regolation. Increased insulin sensitivity could also contribute to their hypoglycaemia; however, this has not been directly demonstrated. Interestingly, susceptibility to hypoglycaemia in GHD children diminishes wi...