Whipple's disease is a rare infection of the gastrointestinal tract caused by the actinomycete Tropheryma whippelii. It most commonly presents with arthralgia, abdominal pain, diarrhoea and weight loss. Invasion of the bacterium through the gastrointestinal mucosa leads to small intestinal villus blunting and malabsorption. Diagnosis is made by histological examination of small bowel biopsies. We report the case of a 78 year old gentleman who had a two year history of fleeting joint pain and multiple hospital admissions for varying symptoms. He was treated with antibiotics for a chest infection with improvement only to present again after 1 year with anorexia, fatigue, blackish loose stools and epigastric pain. Microscopic examination of duodenal biopsies showed a stunted villous architecture and expansion of the lamina propria by foamy macrophages. These expressed CD68 and cytoplasmic contents were strongly PAS positive, consistent with a diagnosis of Whipple’s disease. He was started on intravenous ceftriaxone and a prolonged course of oral co-trimoxazole (at least 1 year) with marked clinical improvement. In retrospect, the previous year’s admissions might have also been due to Whipple’s disease but since he did not have the full course of the appropriate treatment he relapsed. Whipple's disease is a difficult diagnosis to make because of the variety of clinical symptoms and the long time span between the initial unspecific symptoms (the prodromal stage) and the full-blown clinical picture of the illness (the steady-state stage). It may be misdiagnosed with a non-infectious rheumatic illness and may be fatal if untreated.
| Published in | Science Journal of Clinical Medicine (Volume 5, Issue 2) |
| DOI | 10.11648/j.sjcm.20160502.12 |
| Page(s) | 20-23 |
| Creative Commons |
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited. |
| Copyright |
Copyright © The Author(s), 2024. Published by Science Publishing Group |
Arthritis, Endoscopy, Histopathology, Infection, Tropheryma whippelii, Whipple’s Disease
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APA Style
Stephanie Santucci, Ernest Ellul, Noel Gatt, Jonathan Cutajar, Leigh Joseph Calleja. (2016). Palindromic Rheumatoid Arthritis-An Unorthodox Presentation of Whipple’s Disease. Science Journal of Clinical Medicine, 5(2), 20-23. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.sjcm.20160502.12
ACS Style
Stephanie Santucci; Ernest Ellul; Noel Gatt; Jonathan Cutajar; Leigh Joseph Calleja. Palindromic Rheumatoid Arthritis-An Unorthodox Presentation of Whipple’s Disease. Sci. J. Clin. Med. 2016, 5(2), 20-23. doi: 10.11648/j.sjcm.20160502.12
AMA Style
Stephanie Santucci, Ernest Ellul, Noel Gatt, Jonathan Cutajar, Leigh Joseph Calleja. Palindromic Rheumatoid Arthritis-An Unorthodox Presentation of Whipple’s Disease. Sci J Clin Med. 2016;5(2):20-23. doi: 10.11648/j.sjcm.20160502.12
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Download@article{10.11648/j.sjcm.20160502.12,
author = {Stephanie Santucci and Ernest Ellul and Noel Gatt and Jonathan Cutajar and Leigh Joseph Calleja},
title = {Palindromic Rheumatoid Arthritis-An Unorthodox Presentation of Whipple’s Disease},
journal = {Science Journal of Clinical Medicine},
volume = {5},
number = {2},
pages = {20-23},
doi = {10.11648/j.sjcm.20160502.12},
url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.sjcm.20160502.12},
eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.sjcm.20160502.12},
abstract = {Whipple's disease is a rare infection of the gastrointestinal tract caused by the actinomycete Tropheryma whippelii. It most commonly presents with arthralgia, abdominal pain, diarrhoea and weight loss. Invasion of the bacterium through the gastrointestinal mucosa leads to small intestinal villus blunting and malabsorption. Diagnosis is made by histological examination of small bowel biopsies. We report the case of a 78 year old gentleman who had a two year history of fleeting joint pain and multiple hospital admissions for varying symptoms. He was treated with antibiotics for a chest infection with improvement only to present again after 1 year with anorexia, fatigue, blackish loose stools and epigastric pain. Microscopic examination of duodenal biopsies showed a stunted villous architecture and expansion of the lamina propria by foamy macrophages. These expressed CD68 and cytoplasmic contents were strongly PAS positive, consistent with a diagnosis of Whipple’s disease. He was started on intravenous ceftriaxone and a prolonged course of oral co-trimoxazole (at least 1 year) with marked clinical improvement. In retrospect, the previous year’s admissions might have also been due to Whipple’s disease but since he did not have the full course of the appropriate treatment he relapsed. Whipple's disease is a difficult diagnosis to make because of the variety of clinical symptoms and the long time span between the initial unspecific symptoms (the prodromal stage) and the full-blown clinical picture of the illness (the steady-state stage). It may be misdiagnosed with a non-infectious rheumatic illness and may be fatal if untreated.},
year = {2016}
}
TY - JOUR T1 - Palindromic Rheumatoid Arthritis-An Unorthodox Presentation of Whipple’s Disease AU - Stephanie Santucci AU - Ernest Ellul AU - Noel Gatt AU - Jonathan Cutajar AU - Leigh Joseph Calleja Y1 - 2016/03/21 PY - 2016 N1 - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.sjcm.20160502.12 DO - 10.11648/j.sjcm.20160502.12 T2 - Science Journal of Clinical Medicine JF - Science Journal of Clinical Medicine JO - Science Journal of Clinical Medicine SP - 20 EP - 23 PB - Science Publishing Group SN - 2327-2732 UR - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.sjcm.20160502.12 AB - Whipple's disease is a rare infection of the gastrointestinal tract caused by the actinomycete Tropheryma whippelii. It most commonly presents with arthralgia, abdominal pain, diarrhoea and weight loss. Invasion of the bacterium through the gastrointestinal mucosa leads to small intestinal villus blunting and malabsorption. Diagnosis is made by histological examination of small bowel biopsies. We report the case of a 78 year old gentleman who had a two year history of fleeting joint pain and multiple hospital admissions for varying symptoms. He was treated with antibiotics for a chest infection with improvement only to present again after 1 year with anorexia, fatigue, blackish loose stools and epigastric pain. Microscopic examination of duodenal biopsies showed a stunted villous architecture and expansion of the lamina propria by foamy macrophages. These expressed CD68 and cytoplasmic contents were strongly PAS positive, consistent with a diagnosis of Whipple’s disease. He was started on intravenous ceftriaxone and a prolonged course of oral co-trimoxazole (at least 1 year) with marked clinical improvement. In retrospect, the previous year’s admissions might have also been due to Whipple’s disease but since he did not have the full course of the appropriate treatment he relapsed. Whipple's disease is a difficult diagnosis to make because of the variety of clinical symptoms and the long time span between the initial unspecific symptoms (the prodromal stage) and the full-blown clinical picture of the illness (the steady-state stage). It may be misdiagnosed with a non-infectious rheumatic illness and may be fatal if untreated. VL - 5 IS - 2 ER -
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