Genotyping of Whipple’s disease presenting as sclerosing mesenteritis: A case report.

Kalfoutzou, Areti; Makka, Sofia; Stivarou, Theodora; Koutantou, Myrto; Kelidi, Panagiota; Papanikolaou, Maria; Chaleplidis, Nikolaos; Tekedis, Christos; Mostratou, Eleni; Angelakis, Emmanouil; Petrikkos, Panagiotis

Introduction There are very few reported cases of Whipple disease (WD), a rare chronic disease in Greece. In this report, we present a classic WD case in a Greek firefighter and the detection of an autochthonous Tropheryma whipplei genotype in this Greek autochthonous citizen. Case report We describe a patient with chronic diarrhea and arthritis who was misdiagnosed with sclerosing mesenteritis three years previously and was unsuccessfully treated with corticosteroids. After the effectuation of histopathologic examination and PCR against T. whipplei, he was diagnosed with classic WD. Moreover, for the first time in Greece, we proceeded with T. whipplei genotyping targeting four highly variable genomic sequences and we concluded that the patient was infected by T. whipplei genotype 120. Conclusions We highlight the necessity to explore T. whipplei presence and its genotypes through the Greek population and to identify if genotype 120 is the predominant strain in the Hellenic territory.

GREECE; RARE diseases; GENOTYPES; CHRONIC diseases; INFECTIOUS arthritis

Germs, 2023, Vol 13, Issue 2, p183

2248-2997

Academic Journal

10.18683/germs.2023.1383