[Abdominal pseudotumor as the clinical manifestation of Whipple's disease. T-cell index as an indicator of disease activity and a parameter of the duration of therapy?].

A large nonresectable upper-abdominal tumor in a 61-year-old woman was found to have been caused by inflammatory infiltration and mechanical obstruction of the mesenteric lymph nodes resulting in obstruction to lymphatic flow. Biopsy at the root of the mesentery and of abdominal lymph nodes raised the suspicion of Whipple's disease, a diagnosis confirmed by a small-intestine biopsy. Long-term antibiotic treatment was successful. Quantitative changes in the composition of the T-cell subpopulations at the time of the diagnosis reverted to normal in the course of treatment.