[Whipple's disease].

Whipple's disease is a rare infectious disorder affecting mostly middle aged men. The causative organism, Tropheryma whipplei, recently has been cultivated and phylogenetically identified as an actinomycete. The rareness of the disease despite the ubiquitous occurence of T. whipplei presumably is related to a predisposing defect in cellular immunity. The diagnosis usually can be established by small bowel biopsy, but is frequently delayed due to protean clinical manifestations. The initiation of antibiotic treatment in most cases results in clinical remission, however, a significant number of patients is refractory to antimicrobial therapy or has a relapsing course.