Conditions spanning paediatric and adult endocrine practice--the adult perspective

Abstract

Close liaison between paediatric and adult endocrinologists is essential for optimum care in a variety of clinical conditions. The increasingly recognized importance of growth hormone deficiency (GHD) in the adult is a further indication for maintaining long-term follow-up of patients with isolated GHD, which remains demonstrable when linear growth is complete, in addition to those patients presenting in childhood with evidence of structural pituitary disease and anterior pituitary failure. Additional areas in which liaison is desirable include congenital adrenal hyperplasia, precocious puberty, gonadal dysgenesis and other disorders of primary and secondary sexual development, thyroid dysfunction, diabetes mellitus, inherited neoplasia syndromes and those conditions, for example Cushing's syndrome, which present in childhood but are more common in adult clinical endocrine practice. In this brief review, the diagnostic spectrum of the paediatric/adult interface is described and the rationale for an integrated approach to treatment and follow-up is outlined.