title: Fourteen years of severe arthralgia in a man without gastrointestinal symptoms: atypical Whipple's disease.
abstract: We report here the case of Whipple's disease in a 60-year-old man with severe arthralgia and systemic disorders but without gastrointestinal manifestations. The patient had different clinical diagnoses over a period of 14 years. We identified Tropheryma whipplei by real-time PCR. Molecular typing was also performed by sequencing the 16S-23S rRNA intergenic spacer region and domain III of the 23S rRNA gene.
authors.affiliation: Department of Infectious, Istituto Superiore di Sanità, Rome, Italy.
authors.forename: Fabiola
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Mancini
authors.forename: Serena
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Sbaragli
authors.forename: Gilberto
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Colivicchi
authors.forename: Antonio
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Cassone
authors.forename: Alessandra
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ciervo
mesh_terms: D018771:Arthralgia / Q000209:etiology; D001483:Base Sequence; D004269:DNA, Bacterial / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics; D004275:DNA, Ribosomal / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics; D021903:DNA, Ribosomal Spacer / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics; D020459:Genes, rRNA; D006801:Humans; D007422:Intestines / Q000473:pathology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction / Q000379:methods; D012329:RNA, Bacterial / Q000235:genetics; D012338:RNA, Ribosomal, 23S / Q000235:genetics; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D012689:Sequence Homology, Nucleic Acid; D054851:Tropheryma / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D008061:Whipple Disease / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology
chemical_list: D004269:DNA, Bacterial; D004275:DNA, Ribosomal; D021903:DNA, Ribosomal Spacer; D012329:RNA, Bacterial; D012338:RNA, Ribosomal, 23S