The morbidity of children and adults born small for gestational age (SGA) is still poorly understood and it is unclear if SGA will lead to Syndrome X in childhood. Around 100,000 children are born with SGA annually in the U.S. alone, the public health aspects of SGA are of great importance.

The target audience was physicians and other health professionals interested or trained in Endocrinology, Pediatrics and growth related disorders.


Learning Objectives

Upon completion of this program, the participant will be able to:

Understand the relationship of INS VNTR (insulin; variable numbers of tandem repeats).

Examine the influence of foetal growth restraint and postnatal growth rate on the risk of Type 2 diabetes and the effect of INS VNTR genotype.

Describe the mechanisms of underlying hypothalamic ‘malprogramming.’

Outline the role of foetal and neonatal nutrition in strategies for the prevention of Syndrome X.

Identify the long-term consequences in patients diagnosed with idiopathic premature pubarche.

Describe the clinical and hormonal characteristics of those girls with premature adrenarche who may be at risk of the insulin resistance syndrome/polycyctic ovary syndrome (PCOS).

Understand the significant relationship between metabolic disorders and familial risk in SGA patients.

Understand the cellular mechanisms and the clinical implications of insulin resistance.

Define the susceptibility to develop insulin resistance, which seems to be restricted to a subpopulation of SGA adults born.

Assess the risk for developing the metabolic syndrome (or its components) in the offspring of affected patients.