Whipple’s Disease: A Mini Review

Kattula Rao Vinay Rajan¹*, Pasam Sathish Sreenivas², Pilla Sree Surya Durga Devi¹, Penugonda Vineela¹, Haritha Allu¹, Prasad Reddy M¹, Ravisankar Pasam^3
1Doctor of Pharmacy, GIET School of Pharmacy, Rajahmundry, A.P, India
²Department of Medicine, Rangaraya Medical College, Kakinada, A.P, India
³Konaseema Institute of Medical Sciences and Research Foundation, Amalapuram, A.P, India

Abstract
Whipple’s disease is a rare, multi-systemic chronic infectious disease that preferentially affects middle-aged white men. In 1907 George Whipple first reported it and named this disease “intestinal lipodystrophy”. It is a rare condition, estimated incident rate is 1 per 1000000 populations per year. The causative agent is “Tropheryma whipplei”. This name originated from Greek word “trophe” (nourishment), “eryma” (barrier) and from the name of the person who first reported the disease “George Hoyt Whiplle. It is a systemic disease, mainly affects the gastro intestinal system, and also all the other systems in the body. The classic clinical manifestations are arthralgia, weight loss, diarrhoea, abdominal discomfort, and also include amnesia, dementia, insomnia and dyspnoea. Diagnosis is made generally by small bowel biopsy that reveal characteristic foamy macrophages that are Periodic acid-schiff stain positive. Currently no anystandard treatment regimen approved for Whipple’s disease.
Keywords: Whipple’s disease, Tropheryma whipplei, intestinal lipodystrophy, Periodic acid- Schiff.