Diagnosis, treatment and prevention of pediatric obesity: consensus position statement of the Italian Society for Pediatric Endocrinology and Diabetology and the Italian Society of Pediatrics.

The Italian Consensus Position Statement on Diagnosis, Treatment and Prevention of Obesity in Children and Adolescents integrates and updates the previous guidelines to deliver an evidence based approach to the disease. The following areas were reviewed: (1) obesity definition and causes of secondary obesity; (2) physical and psychosocial comorbidities; (3) treatment and care settings; (4) prevention.The main novelties deriving from the Italian experience lie in the definition, screening of the cardiometabolic and hepatic risk factors and the endorsement of a staged approach to treatment.

For Debate: Should We Worry about Hematospermia in Adolescents and Young Men? A Report of Six Cases and Review of the Literature.

Hematospermia or hemospermia is defined as the presence of blood in ejaculate. The true prevalence of the condition is unknown because many cases escape the patient's notice, and remain unrecognized and unreported. There are two main aims in the patient evaluation: first, to ensure that there is no specific condition that is treatable; second, to reassure the patient's parents that no causative factor is present.

Recurrent pericarditis in Myhre syndrome.

Myhre syndrome is a rare disorder characterized by pre- and postnatal short stature, brachydactyly, facial dysmorphism (short palpebral fissures, maxillary hypoplasia, prognathism and short philtrum), thick skin, muscular-appearing body build, decreased joint mobility, mixed hearing loss, and cleft lip and palate. Other clinical features include skeletal dysplasia, developmental delay with intellectual disability and/or behavioral disturbance, cardiac defects, cryptorchidism, and bone anomalies. The disease is caused by recently identified SMAD4 mutations.

Efficacy of propranolol treatment in thyroid dysfunction associated with severe infantile hepatic hemangioma.

Infantile hepatic hemangioma can be associated to consumptive hypothyroidism due to overexpression of type 3 deiodinase in the endothelium of vascular tumor, which catalyzes the conversion of T4 to reverse T3 (rT3) and of T3 to T2, both of which are biologically inactive. Here, we report an infant with a massive biopsy-proven infantile hepatic hemangioma who developed thyroid dysfunction without a typical biochemical profile consistent with severe consumptive hypothyroidism, despite the large tumor burden. Our patient was treated with propranolol that rapidly resolved both hepatic hemangioma and thyroid dysfunction.

Type 1 diabetes (T1DM) in children and adolescents of immigrated families in Emilia-Romagna (Italy).

Background And Aim Of The Work: The etiology and natural history of T1DM are still unknown but certainly both genetics and environmental factors contribute to the development of the disease. Migration studies are an important tool to better understand the role of the environment. The aim of this study was to investigate some variables in diabetic children of immigrant families living in Emilia-Romagna compared with Italian diabetic children living in the same region.