ESPGHAN Webinars

In the past year, we have experienced an increased demand for virtual education due to our limitations with face-to-face meetings.
In 2021, ESPGHAN has thus launched a webinar format for everyone who wants to continue their education in PGHN despite the COVID pandemic and related restrictions. Due to the success of our 2021 series we will continue the webinars in 2023. Please monitor this webpage for respective updates.

Registration

Who can apply?
The webinar is open for members and non-members and all age groups. Participants need to register with the ESPGHAN Office.  The participation is free of charge. To register, please send an email to office@espghan.org
Registrations are on a first-com, first-served basis so we recommend to register early.  We reserve the right to close registration if capacity is reached before the below mentioned deadlines.

Upcoming 2023

November - Update on the management of Wilson’s disease in children

Date: November 28, 2023. 17:00 – 18:00 CET

Registration deadline:  November 27, 2023

Speakers: 
Piotr Socha
Tudor Lucian Pop

Description:

Wilson’s disease (WD) is a rare genetic disorder of the copper metabolism, resulting in a range of disfunctions in multiple organs. In children, the main form is liver disease, highly variable, from increased transaminases levels to cirrhosis or acute liver failure. WD may have fatal evolution, but an early diagnosis and proper treatment could improve the evolution of disease in children. A high level of suspicion should be present for diagnosis based on a combination of clinical signs, biochemical tests, histology, and genetics. This webinar will discuss the recent advances in screening, diagnosis and treatment of WD in pediatric population.

This webinar is organized by the ESPGHAN Hepatology Committee

November - Coeliac Disease: Talking to your immunologist

Date: November 30, 2023. 17:00 – 18:00 CET
Registration deadline:  November 29, 2023

Speakers: 
Renata Auricchio, MD, PhD
Pediatric Gastroenterologist
Associate Professor in Pediatrics
Department of Translation Medical Science, Pediatric Section
European Laboratory for the Investigation of Food Induced Disease (ELFID)
University Federico II, Naples

Ilma Korponay-Szabo M.D., Ph.D.
Department of Pediatrics, Faculty of Medicine, University of Debrecen & Celiac Disease Center, Heim Pál National Paediatric Institute, 1089 Budapest, Hungary

Description:
ESPGHAN Guidelines for Diagnosing Coeliac Disease of 2012 and 2020 establish the possibility of the non-biopsy approach for CD diagnosis in children with symptoms suggestive of CD but also eventually in asymptomatic children, with serum levels of_10 times the upper limit of normal of TGA-IgA  and   positive EMA-IgA in a second serum sample. Thus reliable testing is crucial to avoid under and over diagnosis and in this respect guidelines recommend to use only  antibody tests with proper calibrator curve-based calculation, and having the 10 x ULN value within their measurement range. Reports on TTG should specify the test used and the cut off levels. 
EMA results should contain the specification of the investigated immunoglobulin class, the cutoff dilution, interpretation (positive or negative), the highest dilution still positive and the specification of the substrate tissue. Also, laboratories providing CD-specific antibody test results for diagnostic use should continuously participate in quality control programmes at a national or an international level. Efficiency of the test together with challenging aspects of test interpretation will be addressed during this webinar by relevant experts in the field.

2023 Archive

July - Vegetarian and vegan diets and the health and development of children

Date 17th July 2023 17:00-18:00 CEST

Registration deadline: 16th July 2023

Speakers - Malgorzata Desmond

PhD and clinical dietitian specializes in nutritional therapy of the digestive system, autoimmune and cardiometabolic diseases, as well as in nutritional counselling for vegans and vegetarians. She is currently aa honorary research fellow at the UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child health and runs a private dietetic practise in Warsaw.

Description

Plant-based diets are increasingly recommended for individual as well as planetary health; however, evidence on the health and dietary intakes of children on vegetarian, and particularly on vegan diets is limited. During the webinar Dr Desmond will present the existing evidence on this topic and elaborate on the implications of scientific findings and present recommendations on how to customize the dietary and supplemental advice to vegans compared with vegetarians.

September - Portal hypertension in children; Variceal classification and endoscopic management

Date: September 19, 2023. 16:00 – 17:30 CEST

Registration deadline:  September 18, 2023

Speakers:

Dr.Tassos Grammatikopoulos (Chair)
Dr. Hubert Van der Doef

Description:

The Portal Hypertension(PHT) Special Interest Group(SIG) are hosting their first webinar on the topic. We would like to invite members to join us in a session with lectures and interactive discussion on PHT, variceal classification and endoscopic mamagement. Members of different experience and background are welcomed to this online event. This webinar is part of a series of similar combined educational and clinical management events around PHT, that will be offered.

September -The nutritional management of paediatric liver disease

Date: September 15, 2023. 18:00 - 19:00 CEST
Registration Deadline: September 14

Speaker

Sara Mancell is a paediatric dietitian with over 20 years of clinical experience. Her main research interest and the focus of her current PhD study is medium-chain triglyceride supplementation in cholestatic liver disease.  

Content

Children with liver disease are at high risk of malnutrition. In addition to difficulties with absorbing, metabolising and storing nutrients, the consequences of liver failure may increase the demand for nutrients and have a detrimental effect on nutrient intake. This webinar will focus on nutritional assessment and management and will include practical guidance on managing the most common nutritional complications in children with liver disease.  

October - Coeliac Disease: Talking to your pathologist

Date: October 26, 2023. 17:00 – 18:00 CET

Registration deadline:  October 25, 2023

Speakers: 
Alina Popp

Pediatric Gastroenterologist
National Institute for Mother and Child Health, Bucharest, Romania

Tiberiu Georgescu
Pathologist
National Institute for Mother and Child Health, Bucharest, Romania

Description:
The traditional histological evaluation of CD has undergone marked changes in recent years, and in the ESPGHAN guidelines 2012 and 2020 at least four biopsies from the distal duodenum and at least one from the duodenal bulb should be taken while the patient is on a gluten-containing diet. Additionally, the use of validated standard operating procedures (SOPs) with correct orientation and cutting of the duodenal specimen is considered critical for an accurate evaluation of the mucosal architectural changes. But , in a recent study in paediatric patients, only approximately half of the biopsies were considered optimally oriented. Moreover sometimes it may be challenging to establish if a biopsy is correctly oriented. Thus,  in  cases of doubt or of discordant results between TGA-IgA-results and histopathology, re-cutting of biopsies and/or second opinion from an experienced pathologist may be needed.

In this webinar we will discuss in detail the problematic of histology assessment from the clinician but also from the pathologist point of view.

October - Liver transplantation: when is a child too sick to transplant?