Background: Whipple's disease is a rare infectious disease. This review describes the clinical picture, diagnostic aspects and treatment options.
Material and methods: Based on a clinical case, a literature study was performed by searching PubMed (unlimited) with the words "whipples disease" combined with " TROPHERYMA WHIPPELII: " (118 hits) and " TROPHERYMA WHIPPLEI:" (65 hits). Titles and abstracts were used to identify other relevant articles.
Results and interpretation: Whipple's disease may affect several organ systems and thus causes a wide range of symptoms. The most common ones are weight loss, abdominal pain, diarrhoea and arthralgia. The diagnosis is based on PAS-POSITIVE MATERIAL: in duodenal biopsies and identification of gene fragments from the bacterium TROPHERYMA WHIPPLEI:. Presence of the bacterium may be confirmed by sensitive polymerase chain reaction assays. Left without treatment the disease may be lethal. Proper antibiotic treatment is imperative to heal the disease.