Endocrine Abstracts

The skeletal dysplasias or genetic skeletal disorders (GSDs) are a heterogeneous group of over 450 conditions associated with varying degrees of disproportionate short stature. The diagnosis of these conditions has relied on a combination of clinical and radiographic assessment. The original classifications of the GSDs was based on x-ray imaging, but Spranger and others predicted that there would be ‘families’ of GSDs with the same underlying molecular basis. The adv...

Although ‘simple’ nutritional obesity is increasingly prevalent in the population some other types, such as those secondary to underlying medical conditions, remain relatively rare. These childhood disorders associated with obesity (such as hypothyroidism, Cushing’s syndrome, hypothalamic obesity, leptin deficiency, Prader-Willi Syndrome and melanocortin-4 receptor mutations) will be reviewed and consideration given to which patients should be investigated for t...

Leukaemia is the most common childhood cancer with an excellent 5-year survival rate of >80%, but many survivors face long-term health consequences. Low risk patients who were treated with chemotherapy-only are at risk of obesity and the metabolic syndrome. Endocrine and cardiometabolic abnormalities are common in high risk patients who required adjunct cranial irradiation and/or haematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) with/without total body irradiation (TBI). Gro...