Whipple’s disease: etiology, pathogenesis, clinic, diagnosis and treatment

Abstract

Whipple’s disease is an infectious, systemic and recurrent disease caused by the gram-positive bacterium Tropheryma whipplei. The disease proceeds with a heterogeneous clinical picture, presenting difficulties of timely diagnosis and in the absence of antibacterial therapy can lethal outcome. This review is devoted to the etiology, pathogenesis, epidemiology, clinical picture, modern diagnosis and therapy of Whipple’s disease.