Refractory Whipple's disease with anaemia: first lessons from capsule endoscopy

Endoscopy
A Fritscher-RavensA von Herbay

Abstract

Whipple's disease is a chronic multisystem disorder caused by infection with the rod-shaped bacterium, Tropheryma whippelii. We report the case of a 65-year-old woman with intestinal Whipple's disease that had been refractory to monotherapy with a number of antibiotics over a 2-year period. The patient then presented with watery diarrhoea, cachexia (body mass index 18 kg/m (2)) and chronic anaemia (haemoglobin 7.6 g/dl). Wireless capsule endoscopy showed that the disease affected the entire small intestine. Focal occult areas of bleeding were observed in different parts of the jejunum. The capsule's transit time through the small intestine was 2 hours 43 minutes. Capsule endoscopy allows novel insights into the pathophysiology of Whipple's disease.

Citations

Sep 12, 2008·World Journal of Gastroenterology : WJG·Gerard GayMuriel Frederic
Mar 1, 2008·Journal of Gastroenterology·Tetsuya Nakamura, Akira Terano
Sep 16, 2008·Best Practice & Research. Clinical Gastroenterology·Michel Delvaux, Gérard Gay
Feb 14, 2006·Best Practice & Research. Clinical Gastroenterology·Michel Delvaux, Gérard Gay
Apr 4, 2017·Digestive Endoscopy : Official Journal of the Japan Gastroenterological Endoscopy Society·Hironori YamamotoKazuma Fujimoto
Sep 12, 2020·Orbit·Filipa SampaioRui Carvalho

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