Abstract
Whipple disease (intestinal lipodystrophy) is a systemic disorder that involves not only the small bowel and lymph nodes but also the liver, spleen, heart, brain, and other organs. Histopathologically, the disease is characterized by the ubiquitous macrophages that give a positive diastase-resistant PAS staining reaction. Although Whipple disease can be treated with antibiotics, its etiology remains one of the unsolved riddles of medicine, that is, perhaps, until now. Clancy and associates 1 recently reported in the British Medical Journal that a cell wall-deficient form (CWD) of an α-hemolytic Streptococcus was grown from a prolonged monolayer cell culture of a lymph node taken from a patient with Whipple disease. Serological cross reactivity was shown between the organisms and the material within Whipple disease macrophages. In vitro studies characterized the organisms as a facultative intracellular parasite that caused the accumulation within cells of PASpositive material. Moreover, parenteral injection of this CWD organism into
Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callMore From: JAMA: The Journal of the American Medical Association
Disclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
