Role of enteroscopy in the diagnosis of whipple’s disease

Abstract

Whipple’s disease is a rare chronic systemic infection caused by Tropheryma whipplei. The widespread infection by this rod is responsible for the protean clinical manifestations of the disease, although its classical form is notable for the prevalence of abdominal symptoms such as chronic diarrhea and abdominal pain. Whitish-yellow patches, suggestive of lymphangiectasia, are typically observed in the duodenum during upper endoscopy. The diagnosis of this condition is supported by the identification in duodenal biopsies of Periodic acid-Schiff staining within lamina propria macrophages. Nevertheless, a significant portion of patients do not have lesions within the range of conventional upper endoscopy. Therefore, other endoscopic procedures such as video capsule endoscopy and enteroscopy may be useful to detect more distal lesions. The authors describe a case where the combined used of both techniques allowed the unmasking of this disease.