Resident Physician, Internal Medicine, Brown University, Providence, RI.
Advanced Fellow, Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, Lebanon, NH.
R I Med J (2013). 2021 May 3;104(4):43-45.
Whipple's disease is a rare infectious disease caused by the bacterium Tropheryma whipplei. The prevalence of Whipple's disease is 3/1,000,000 in Western populations. It most often causes a malabsorption disorder with weight loss and diarrhea as common presenting symptoms. In one-third of patients, however, there are no gastrointestinal symptoms at presentation; patients instead report a wide variety of non-specific extraintestinal complaints, potentially involving every organ system. We report a case of a 37-year-old man who presented with a 3-month history of non-bloody diarrhea and 15-pound weight loss. He was ultimately diagnosed with biopsy-confirmed Whipple's disease. Despite its rarity, Whipple's disease remains an important clinical entity and should be included on the differential diagnosis for selected patients presenting with an array of non-specific symptoms.
惠普尔病是一种罕见的传染病，由 Tropheryma whipplei 细菌引起。惠普尔病的患病率在西方人群中为 3/100 万。它最常导致吸收不良障碍，体重减轻和腹泻是常见的表现症状。然而，三分之一的患者在就诊时没有胃肠道症状；相反，患者报告了各种各样的非特异性肠外投诉，可能涉及每个器官系统。我们报告了一例 37 岁男性，他有 3 个月的非血性腹泻和 15 磅体重减轻病史。他最终被诊断为活检证实的惠普尔病。尽管惠普尔病很罕见，但它仍然是一种重要的临床实体，对于出现一系列非特异性症状的选定患者，应将其纳入鉴别诊断。
