Whipple's Disease: Our Own Experience and Review of the Literature

Overview

Journal Gastroenterol Res Pract

Publisher Wiley

Specialty Gastroenterology

Date 2013 Jul 12

PMID 23843784

Citations 8

Authors

Jan Bures

Marcela Kopacova

Tomas Douda

Jolana Bartova

Jan Toms

Stanislav Rejchrt

Ilja Tacheci

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Whipple's disease is a chronic infectious systemic disease caused by the bacterium Tropheryma whipplei. Nondeforming arthritis is frequently an initial complaint. Gastrointestinal and general symptoms include marked diarrhoea (with serious malabsorption), abdominal pain, prominent weight loss, and low-grade fever. Possible neurologic symptoms (up to 20%) might be associated with worse prognosis. Diagnosis is based on the clinical picture and small intestinal histology revealing foamy macrophages containing periodic-acid-Schiff- (PAS-) positive material. Long-term (up to one year) antibiotic therapy provides a favourable outcome in the vast majority of cases. This paper provides review of the literature and an analysis of our 5 patients recorded within a 20-year period at a tertiary gastroenterology centre. Patients were treated using i.v. penicillin G or amoxicillin-clavulanic acid + i.v. gentamicin for two weeks, followed by p.o. doxycycline (100 mg per day) plus p.o. salazopyrine (3 g per day) for 1 year. Full remission was achieved in all our patients.

Citing Articles

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Seronegative Celiac Disease - A Challenging Case.

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Drug Response Diversity: A Hidden Bacterium?.

Hannachi N, Camoin-Jau L J Pers Med. 2021; 11(5).

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Whipple's Disease: A Rare Cause of Malabsorption Syndrome.

Cardoso J, Gomes L, Santos S, Moreira H, Gomes P, Rua J GE Port J Gastroenterol. 2020; 27(4):283-289.

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A rare case of Whipple's disease with endocarditis in a patient with dextrocardia.

Sullivan A, Shrestha P, Basnet S, Herb R, Zagorski E SAGE Open Med Case Rep. 2020; 8:2050313X20936952.

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