Paeds: Endocrinology (2) Flashcards

1
Q

Causes of delayed puberty with short stature

A
  • Turner’s syndrome
  • Prader-Willi syndrome
  • Noonan’s syndrome
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2
Q

Causes of delayed puberty with normal stature

A
  • polycystic ovarian syndrome
  • androgen insensitivity
  • Kallman’s syndrome
  • Klinefelter’s syndrome
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3
Q

Ages for classification of late puberty (both genders)

A
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4
Q

Ages at which a girl and a boy may be classified as ‘extreme’ delay in puberty

A

Girl → >14 y old

Boy → >16 y old

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5
Q

What’s the danger of congenital hypothyroidism?

A

If not diagnosed and treated within the first four weeks it causes irreversible cognitive impairment

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6
Q

Features of congenital hypothyroidism

A
  • prolonged neonatal jaundice
  • delayed mental & physical milestones
  • short stature
  • puffy face
  • macroglossia
  • hypotonia
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7
Q

Screening for congenital hypothyroidism

A

Children are screened at 5-7 days using the heel prick test

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8
Q

What’s a secondary hypothyroidism?

  • where is the problem
  • levels of TFTs
A
  • problem is at the hypothalamus or pituitary gland
  • Low levels of plasma TSH
  • Low levels of plasma Thyroxine

*Requires the levels of FT4 and TSH for diagnosis

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9
Q

Would UK Neonatal Screening Programme pick up secondary hypothyroidism?

A

No.

If there is clinical suspicion of hypothyroidism, a full assessment of thyroid function is mandatory

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10
Q

How testing for congenital hypothyroidism is done in the UK?

A
  • Midwife obtains sample on day 5-8 regardless of health and sends blood spot card by 1st class post clearly identified as newborn screening blood spot
  • Laboratory analyses for blood spot TSH
  • Each laboratory defines a cut off point which identifies an abnormal result
  • Normal result, parents informed
  • Abnormal result referred to clinician for confirmation
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11
Q

Causes of hypothyroidism in children

A

The most common cause of hypothyroidism in children (juvenile hypothyroidism) is autoimmune thyroiditis.

Other causes include

  • post total-body irradiation (e.g. in a child previous treated for acute lymphoblastic leukaemia)
  • iodine deficiency (the most common cause in the developing world)
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12
Q

Structure of adrenal gland

A
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13
Q

How to assess BMI in children?

A
  • BMI assessment more difficult in children than adults
  • body mass index (BMI) varies with age
  • BMI percentile charts are therefore needed to make an accurate assessment
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14
Q

What to do next if BMI of a child is at:

  • 91st centile or above
  • 98th centile or above
A
  • 91st centile or above → consider tailored clinical intervention if BMI
  • 98th centile or above → consider assessing for comorbidities
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15
Q

Causes of obesity in children

A
  • lifestyle factors → the most common cause of obesity in children
  • growth hormone deficiency
  • hypothyroidism
  • Down’s syndrome
  • Cushing’s syndrome
  • Prader-Willi syndrome
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16
Q

Epidemiology of obesity in children

A
  • Asian children: four times more likely to be obese than white children
  • female children
  • taller children: children with obesity are often above the 50th percentile in height
17
Q

Consequences of obesity in children

A
  • orthopaedic problems: slipped upper femoral epiphyses, Blount’s disease (a development abnormality of the tibia resulting in bowing of the legs), musculoskeletal pains
  • psychological consequences: poor self-esteem, bullying
  • sleep apnoea
  • benign intracranial hypertension
  • long-term consequences: increased incidence of type 2 diabetes mellitus, hypertension and ischaemic heart disease
18
Q

Genetics and obesity (simply)

A

genetics plays a part but does not pre-destine us to be obese

19
Q

Relationship of GH and IGF-1

A
  • GH (via a complex cascade) initiates the release of IGF-I within many tissues but predominantly the liver and at the growth plate
  • IGF-I acts in an autocrine and paracrine manner via the IGF-I receptor to stimulate cell proliferation and longitudinal growth
20
Q

What other hormones can affect GH-IGF-1 system?

A

Many other hormones can affect the GH-IGF-I system or directly affect cell proliferation at the growth plate including:

  • thyroid hormone
  • vitamin D
  • corticosteroids
21
Q

What is the trigger for puberty to start?

A
  • Puberty’s trigger lies in hypothalamus → secretion of gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH)
  • GnRH → stimulates the pituitary gland → release of luteinizing hormone (LH) and follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH)
  • LH and FSH → signal ovaries and testes to begin releasing the appropriate sex hormones → estrogens and testosterone, which launch the other signs of puberty in the body
22
Q

Hormone release during late pre-pubertal years

A
  • During the late pre-pubertal years gonadotrophin releasing hormone (GnRH) are secreted with increasing frequency, initially during sleep
  • In the early stages FSH secretion is in excess of LH but as the amplitude of GnRH pulses increase LH secretion becomes predominant
23
Q

What’s the earliest sign of puberty in females

A

Breast development or ‘thelarche’ is the earliest sign of puberty and coincides with pubertal growth spurt

24
Q

What’s first sign of puberty in males?

A

The first sign of puberty in boys is change in testicular volume from 3 mls to 4 mls

25
Q

Prognosis for delayed puberty

A

Many children with delayed puberty will eventually go through an otherwise normal puberty, just at a late age

26
Q

Benign causes of delayed puberty

A
  • child is just maturing more slowly than average, a condition called constitutional delay of puberty

​* This condition often runs in families

  • young girls who undergo intense physical training for a sport, such as running or gymnastics, start puberty later than normal
27
Q

Indications for reviewing a patient with delayed puberty

A
  • No breast development in girls by age 13
  • No menstruation for five or more years after the first appearance of breast tissue
  • No testicles development by age 14 in boys
  • Incompletely developed male organs by five years after they first start to develop
28
Q

Management of Turner’s syndrome

A

There’s no cure for Turner syndrome, but certain treatments can help cope with the symptoms and effects of this condition:

  • Hormone treatments with growth hormone and/or other hormones can improve growth and help girls achieve taller heights in adulthood
  • Estrogen replacement around the age of 12 or 13 may be initiated to stimulate the development of secondary sexual characteristics, such as breasts, and menstruation
  • If structural heart defects are present, cardiac surgery may be needed
29
Q

Is Turner’s syndrome inherited?

A

Most cases of Turner syndrome are not inherited.

  • chromosomal abnormality occurs as a random event during the formation of reproductive cells (eggs and sperm) in the affected person’s parent
  • an error in cell division called nondisjunction can result in reproductive cells with an abnormal number of chromosomes

Mosaic Turner syndrome is also not inherited

  • it occurs as a random event during cell division in early fetal development → as a result, some of an affected person’s cells have the usual two sex chromosomes, and other cells have only one copy of the X chromosome
30
Q

Biochemical characteristics of Addison’s disease

A
  • hyponatremia
  • hypoglycaemia
  • hyperkalaemia
  • unexplained eosinophilia
  • mild prerenal azotaemia (accumulation of urea and creatinine in the body)
31
Q

Causes of congenital hypothyroidism

A
  • anatomic defect in the gland
  • an inborn error of thyroid metabolism
  • iodine deficiency
32
Q

Signs and symptoms of congenital hypothyroidism

A
  • Infants with congenital hypothyroidism are usually born at term or after term
  • Often, affected infants are described as “good babies” because they rarely cry and they sleep most of the time

 Decreased activity

 Large anterior fontanelle

 Poor feeding and weight gain

 Small stature or poor growth

 Jaundice

 Decreased stooling or constipation

 Hypotonia

 Hoarse cry

33
Q

Physical findings O/E of congenital hypothyroidism

A

The physical findings of hypothyroidism may or may not be present at birth. Signs include:

 Coarse facial features

 Macroglossia

 Large fontanelles

 Umbilical hernia

 Mottled, cool, and dry skin

 Developmental delay

 Pallor

 Myxedema

 Goiter

34
Q

Diagnosis of congenital hypothyroidism

A

Diagnosis of primary hypothyroidism

  • decreased levels of serum thyroid hormone (total or free T4) and elevated levels of thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH)
  • if maternal antibody-mediated hypothyroidism is suspected→ maternal and neonatal antithyroid antibodies
35
Q

In neonate, does a combination of low T4 and normal TSH require treatment?

A

The combination of low or low-normal serum total T4 levels and a serum TSH within the reference range suggests thyroid-binding globulin (TBG) deficiency.

This congenital disorder causes no pathologic consequence but should be recognized to avoid unnecessary thyroid hormone administration (i.e. when thinking about congenital hypothyroidism).