TY - JOUR
T1 - Prevalence of Whipple's disease in north-western Italy
AU - Biagi, F.
AU - Balduzzi, D.
AU - Delvino, P.
AU - Schiepatti, A.
AU - Klersy, C.
AU - Corazza, G. R.
PY - 2015/7/23
Y1 - 2015/7/23
N2 - Whipple's disease (WD) is a rare systemic infection due, in genetically susceptible individuals, to Tropheryma whipplei, a heterogeneous Gram-positive actinobacteria. Although it has already been recognised that WD affects mainly middle-aged Caucasian men, the prevalence of WD is virtually unknown. The annual incidence of WD in the general population is said to be less than 1 per 1,000,000, but scientific evidence for these figures is still lacking. On the basis of the number of patients recorded with a diagnosis of Whipple’s disease in the regional registers for rare diseases of Lombardia, Liguria and Piemonte-Valle d'Aosta regions, we studied the prevalence of WD in the north-western part of Italy. Forty-six patients with Whipple’s disease were recorded in these regions (13 females; mean age at diagnosis 52.1 ± 11.1 years). Since 16,130,725 inhabitants live in these four regions, prevalence of WD in the general population is 3/106 and almost 30 % of the patients are females. WD is certainly a rare disease but it also affects women in a considerable proportion of cases.
AB - Whipple's disease (WD) is a rare systemic infection due, in genetically susceptible individuals, to Tropheryma whipplei, a heterogeneous Gram-positive actinobacteria. Although it has already been recognised that WD affects mainly middle-aged Caucasian men, the prevalence of WD is virtually unknown. The annual incidence of WD in the general population is said to be less than 1 per 1,000,000, but scientific evidence for these figures is still lacking. On the basis of the number of patients recorded with a diagnosis of Whipple’s disease in the regional registers for rare diseases of Lombardia, Liguria and Piemonte-Valle d'Aosta regions, we studied the prevalence of WD in the north-western part of Italy. Forty-six patients with Whipple’s disease were recorded in these regions (13 females; mean age at diagnosis 52.1 ± 11.1 years). Since 16,130,725 inhabitants live in these four regions, prevalence of WD in the general population is 3/106 and almost 30 % of the patients are females. WD is certainly a rare disease but it also affects women in a considerable proportion of cases.
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U2 - 10.1007/s10096-015-2357-2
DO - 10.1007/s10096-015-2357-2
M3 - Article
C2 - 25804189
AN - SCOPUS:84931563237
VL - 34
SP - 1347
EP - 1348
JO - European Journal of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases
JF - European Journal of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases
SN - 0934-9723
IS - 7
ER -