Ocular Whipple Disease: Report of Three Cases.

Purpose: To emphasize the different manifestations of ocular involvement in Whipple disease with challenge in establishing the diagnosis as clinical, laboratory, and histological features could mimic other uveitis entities.

Methods

Case reports of three patients.

Results

The first patient was an African male suffering from a chronic bilateral keratoconjunctitivitis that was initially misdiagnosed as a chronic allergic conjunctivitis. The second patient was an Italian female who presented with bilateral vitritis, whereas the third patient was an Italian male suffering from a chronic bilateral panuveitis. The diagnosis of ocular Whipple in the first and third case was made by a positive T. whipplei PCR from the ocular specimen, and the second patient had detection of T. whipplei from extraocular sites.

Conclusions

Whipple disease can have protean manifestations in the eye including an isolated ocular surface involvement manifested as keratitis.