FREE NEJM E-TOC    HOME   |   SUBSCRIBE   |   CURRENT ISSUE   |   PAST ISSUES   |   COLLECTIONS   |   Search Term  Advanced Search

Sign in | Get NEJM's E-Mail Table of Contents — Free | Subscribe

Previous Volume 356:55-66 January 4, 2007 Number 1 Next

	Since this article has no abstract, we have provided an extract of the first 100 words of the full text and any section headings.

	Full Text PDF PDA Full Text PowerPoint Slide Set CME Exam Purchase this article Letters Add to Personal Archive Add to Citation Manager Notify a Friend E-mail When Cited E-mail When Letters Appear PubMed Citation

The discovery of Whipple's disease and its causative bacterium, Tropheryma whipplei, is a prime example of how modern technologies have contributed to medical knowledge. Although Whipple's disease was first described in 1907,¹ the first successful culture of T. whipplei was performed nearly a century later, in 2000. This accomplishment led to a new level of understanding of the disease.

During the 20th century, knowledge of this chronic disease slowly accumulated (Table 1).^2,3,4,5,6 At the dawn of the 21st century, two major events — molecular amplification of the 16S ribosomal RNA (rRNA) of T. whipplei by polymerase-chain-reaction (PCR) assay . . . [Full Text of this Article]

Classic Whipple's Disease

Endocarditis Associated with T. whipplei

Isolated Neurologic Manifestations

Other Presentations

Asymptomatic Carriers

The Organism

Pathophysiology of Whipple's Disease

Clinical Diagnosis

Blood Studies

Endoscopy

Other Diagnostic Tools

Treatment

Directions for Future Research

Source Information

From Unité des Rickettsies, IFR 48, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique UMR 6020, and Université de la Méditerranée, Faculté de Médecine — both in Marseille, France (F.F., D.R.); and the Department of Rheumatology, Le Mans General Hospital, Le Mans, France (X.P.).

Drs. Fenollar and Puéchal contributed equally to this article.

Address reprint requests to Dr. Raoult at Université de la Méditerranée, Faculté de Médecine, 27 Blvd. Jean Moulin, 13385 Marseille CEDEX 5, France, or at didier.raoult@medecine.univ-mrs.fr.

Related Letters:

Whipple's Disease
Williams O. M., Nightingale A. K., Hartley J., Bramkamp M., Ruggieri F., Schneemann M., Raoult D., Fenollar F., Puéchal X.
Extract | Full Text | PDF  
N Engl J Med 2007; 356:1479-1481, Apr 5, 2007. Correspondence

This article has been cited by other articles:

• Panegyres, P K (2008). Diagnosis and management of Whipple's disease of the brain. PN 8: 311-317 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
• Knaapen, H. K. A., Barrera, P. (2008). Therapy for Whipple's disease--authors' response. J Antimicrob Chemother 61: 969-970 [Full Text]  
• Cremniter, J., Bauer, T., Lortat-Jacob, A., Vodovar, D., Le Parc, J.-M., Emile, J.-F., Franc, B., Sebbag, P., Gaillard, J.-L., Heym, B. (2008). Prosthetic Hip Infection Caused by Tropheryma whipplei. J. Clin. Microbiol. 46: 1556-1557 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
• Li, W., Fenollar, F., Rolain, J.-M., Fournier, P.-E., Feurle, G. E., Muller, C., Moos, V., Marth, T., Altwegg, M., Calligaris-Maibach, R. C., Schneider, T., Biagi, F., La Scola, B., Raoult, D. (2008). Genotyping reveals a wide heterogeneity of Tropheryma whipplei. Microbiology 154: 521-527 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
• Knaapen, H. K. A., Barrera, P. (2007). Therapy for Whipple's disease. J Antimicrob Chemother 60: 457-458 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
• Pruss, H., Katchanov, J., Zschenderlein, R., Loddenkemper, C., Schneider, T., Moos, V. (2007). A patient with cerebral Whipple disease with gastric involvement but no gastrointestinal symptoms: a consequence of local protective immunity?. J. Neurol. Neurosurg. Psychiatry 78: 896-898 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
• Williams, O. M., Nightingale, A. K., Hartley, J., Bramkamp, M., Ruggieri, F., Schneemann, M., Raoult, D., Fenollar, F., Puechal, X. (2007). Whipple's Disease. NEJM 356: 1479-1481 [Full Text]