For the first time, French researchers have isolated and grown a bacterial strain that causes Whipple's disease, a rare intestinal disorder that prevents the body from absorbing nutrients from food.
This success opens the door for diagnosing Whipple's disease with a simple blood test, rather than with the current method of removing a sample of intestinal tissue, according to the researchers. A team led by Dr. Didier Raoult, of the Universite de la Mediterranee in Marseilles, reports the findings in the March 2nd issue of The New England Journal of Medicine. Although Whipple's disease was first identified in 1907 and linked to bacterial infection about 40 years ago, researchers have been unable to grow the bacterium in the lab -- a crucial, basic step in studying an infectious disease. Whipple's disease usually strikes the small intestine, causing irregular breakdown of fats and carbohydrates and an inability to absorb nutrients. Patients -- mostly middle-aged men -- suffer symptoms such as weight loss, cramps, diarrhea, and arthritis. Antibiotics and nutritional supplements often quell the symptoms, but many patients relapse and need life-long treatment. To isolate the Whipple's bacterium, the French doctors removed a tissue sample from a patient with inflammation in the heart and heart valves, one of the less-common complications of Whipple's disease. Using the heart tissue sample, the investigators were able to get the bacteria to grow in cultured cells. Further tests showed that 7 out of 9 Whipple's patients had antibodies in their blood that recognized the bacteria, compared with 3 out of 40 people without the disease. In another test, all the Whipple's patients had another type of antibody that recognized the bacteria, but 73% of healthy people also had such antibodies. The findings suggest that Whipple's bacterial infection is common, but rarely causes illness, according to an editorial by Dr. Morton N. Swartz of Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. The French researchers' blood test, however, is not ready for use in diagnosing Whipple's, Swartz notes. A more specific test is needed to diagnose the disease, he concludes.
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