Are IGF-I and IGF-BP3 useful for diagnosing growth hormone deficiency in children of short stature?

Background: The diagnosis of growth hormone deficiency (GHD) is based on clinical and auxological characteristics combined with the results of growth hormone provocation tests.

Aim: To evaluate the utility of IGF-I and IGF-BP3 serum levels in the diagnosis of GHD among children of short stature.

Subjects/methods: We recruited 207 short pre-pubertal children and divided them into two groups.

Thyroid function and morphology in subjects with microdeletion of chromosome 22q11 (del(22)(q11)).

Introduction: Monoallelic microdeletion of chromosome 22q11 (22q11DS) is considered to be the commonest human microdeletion syndrome. Abnormalities of thyroid function are sporadically reported in this syndrome, but very few studies have specifically assessed this issue, and thyroid morphology has not been systematically studied.

Design: To evaluate the prevalence of abnormalities of thyroid function and morphology in a cohort of paediatric and adult patients with 22q11DS.

Diagnosis of growth hormone deficiency by using the arginine provocative test: is it possible to shorten testing time without altering validity?

Background: The arginine test is used for the diagnosis of growth hormone deficiency (GHD), but its duration is not uniform and varies from 180 to 90 min.

Subjects And Methods: To standardize this test, evaluating the possibility to shorten it to 90 min, we investigated the response of GH to the arginine test in 208 children evaluated for short stature (height less than -2 SD); 67 were diagnosed with idiopathic short stature (ISS) and 141 with GHD. We calculated the frequency distribution of the GH peaks to arginine in GHD and in ISS at various times and the percentage of GH peaks to arginine before and after 90 min in all and in ISS children.

Partial growth hormone deficiency and changed bone quality and mass in type I trichorhinophalangeal syndrome.

The trichorhinophalangeal syndromes (TRPSs) are syndromes due to haploinsufficiency of genes in the chromosome 8q24.12 region. Type I TRPS is characterized by typical facial features including sparse, brittle and fine hair, bulbous nose, and a long philtrum, as well as skeletal abnormalities.

Precocious puberty in a girl with floating-harbor syndrome.

Floating-Harbor syndrome (FHS) is a rare genetic disorder characterized by short stature, delayed bone age, mild to moderate mental retardation, speech problems, and peculiar craniofacial features. In these patients pubertal development has been reported to be normal. In this paper, we describe a girl with FHS who developed precocious puberty.

Thyroid function and anti-thyroid autoantibodies in untreated children with vertically acquired chronic hepatitis C virus infection.

Objective: The reported data on thyroid function and anti-thyroid autoantibodies in adults with untreated hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection are controversial. Data are scarce for HCV-infected children, and only in those treated with interferon-alpha (IFN-alpha). We investigated thyroid function and anti-thyroid autoantibodies in a cohort of untreated children with vertically acquired, chronic, HCV infection.

Oral clonidine provocative test in the diagnosis of growth hormone deficiency in childhood: should we make the timing uniform?

Introduction: Oral clonidine is one of the most frequent drugs used for the diagnosis of growth hormone deficiency (GHD), but the duration of the test, depending on which European centres use it, is not uniform and can vary from 120 to 150 min or even 180 min.

Subjects And Methods: To standardize this test, evaluating the possibility to shorten it to 90 min, we investigated the response of GH to the oral clonidine test in 291 children evaluated for short stature (height <-2 SD). Of these, 164 were diagnosed as idiopathic short stature (ISS) and 127 as GHD.

Age-dependent association of exposure to television screen with children's urinary melatonin excretion?

Objectives: Changes in magnetic field are associated with a decrease in nocturnal urinary melatonin excretion. Television screens emit low and very low frequency electromagnetic waves (radiofrequencies and light) and exposure to them may be associated with a decrease in 24-hour melatonin in children's urine. Design and setting.

Osteoprotegerin serum levels in children with type 1 diabetes: a potential modulating role in bone status.

Objective: Children and adolescents with type 1 (insulin-dependent) diabetes mellitus (T1DM) show several impairment of bone metabolism and structure, resulting in a higher risk of decreased bone mass and its related complications later in life. Alterations of the nuclear factor-kappaB ligand (RANKL)/osteoprotegerin (OPG) system have been implicated in several metabolic bone diseases characterized by increased osteoclast differentiation and activation and enhanced bone resorption.

Design: We aimed to assess OPG levels and to investigate the possible relation between OPG levels, bone status and glycemic control in a group of prepubertal children with T1DM without microvascular complications.

Thyroid function and morphology in patients affected by Williams syndrome.

Objective: To evaluate the prevalence of abnormalities of thyroid function and morphology in a cohort of patients with Williams syndrome (WS).

Methods: Serum concentrations of free-T3, free-T4, TSH, thyroperoxidase antibodies (TPOA) and thyroglobulin antibodies (TgA), as well as ultrasonographic data, of 20 patients with WS (12 females and eight males), aged 1.7-34.

Undetectable serum IgA and low IgM concentration in children with congenital hypothyroidism.

Some studies suggest thyroid hormones may regulate the human immune system. In order to evaluate the effect of thyroid hormone deficiency on antibody production, we evaluated serum IgA and IgM concentrations in 83 children with congenital hypothyroidism (CH), diagnosed by neonatal screening. Patients were compared to two healthy, age-matched control groups.

Chronoastrobiology: proposal, nine conferences, heliogeomagnetics, transyears, near-weeks, near-decades, phylogenetic and ontogenetic memories.

"Chronoastrobiology: are we at the threshold of a new science? Is there a critical mass for scientific research?" A simple photograph of the planet earth from outer space was one of the greatest contributions of space exploration. It drove home in a glance that human survival depends upon the wobbly dynamics in a thin and fragile skin of water and gas that covers a small globe in a mostly cold and vast universe. This image raised the stakes in understanding our place in that universe, in finding out where we came from and in choosing a path for survival.

Changed bone status in human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) perinatally infected children is related to low serum free IGF-I.

Introduction: Adults and children affected by human immunodeficiency virus type-1 (HIV-1) infection show bone demineralization. Little is known about skeletal status using a quantitative high-frequency ultrasound (QUS) technique in these patients.

Objective: To evaluate the bone quality and assess the role of the IGF system in the bone metabolism and skeletal status of HIV-1 perinatally infected children.

Point and interval estimations of circadian melatonin ecphasia in Smith-Magenis syndrome.

An inferential statistical quantification of chronomes (time structures) in the range of everyday physiology has earlier revealed changes affecting the circadian amplitude of melatonin in the absence of changes in the chronome-adjusted mean value (MESOR) or in the acrophase. A chrono-meta-analysis of published data on patients with the Smith-Magenis syndrome herein quantifies the average extent of shift in the acrophase of the circadian melatonin rhythm, reported earlier by others time-macroscopically as an antiphase. Time-microscopically, the phase shift averages 9.

Thyroid hypoplasia of the left lobe in two girls affected by Williams syndrome.

Williams syndrome is a well-recognized disorder, having an incidence of 1 in 20,000 live births. However, thyroid function in these patients is rarely studied. This paper reports thyroid hypoplasia of the left lobe in two girls affected by Williams syndrome, suggesting that it may be a feature of this syndrome.