Long-Term Morbidity and Mortality in Whipple’s Disease: A Single-Center Experience Over 20 Years

Abstract

Background: Little is known about long-term morbidity and mortality in Whipple’s disease (WD). Aim: To describe morbidity and mortality in patients with WD on a long-term follow-up. Materials & methods: Comorbidities, mortality and causes of death were retrospectively registered. Results: A total of 35 patients with WD (9F, 54 ± 11 years) were followed-up for a median of 104 months. Nine patients developed ten complications; three patients died. A total of 31 severe comorbidities apparently unrelated to WD were found in 20 patients: preneoplastic/neoplastic disorders in seven, thromboembolic and cardiovascular events in seven, pneumonia in four, candidiasis in ten patients. Conclusion: WD is frequently complicated by potentially life-threatening infectious, neoplastic and thromboembolic disorders, thus highlighting the need for a life-long multidisciplinary follow-up.

Keywords::

• chronic infections
• environmental microbiology
• morbidity
• mortality
• tropheryma whipplei
• Whipple’s disease

Financial & competing interests disclosure

The authors have no relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript. This includes employment, consultancies, honoraria, stock ownership or options, expert testimony, grants or patents received or pending, or royalties.

No writing assistance was utilized in the production of this manuscript.

Ethical conduct of research

The study was approved by the ethics committee of the Fondazione IRCCS Policlinico San Matteo according to the 1975 Declaration of Helsinki (6th revision, 2008). In addition, for investigations involving human subjects, informed consent has been obtained from the participants involved.

Additional information

Funding

The study was approved by the ethics committee of the Fondazione IRCCS Policlinico San Matteo according to the 1975 Declaration of Helsinki (6th revision, 2008). In addition, for investigations involving human subjects, informed consent has been obtained from the participants involved.