Experience in the diagnosis and treatment of pneumonia caused by infection with Tropheryma whipplei: A case series
Zhixiong Fang,
Qiong Liu,
Wei Tang,
Hongyin Yu,
Min Zou,
Haiming Zhang,
Haiyan Xue,
Sha Lin,
Yi Pei,
Jingwen Ai,
Jun Chen
Affiliations
Zhixiong Fang
Department of Infectious Disease and Public Health, Central Hospital of Xiangtan, Hunan province, China
Qiong Liu
Linxiang People’s Hospital, Hunan province, China
Wei Tang
Department of Infectious Disease and Public Health, Central Hospital of Xiangtan, Hunan province, China
Hongyin Yu
Center for Infectious Diseases, The First People's Hospital of Huaihua, Hunan, China
Min Zou
Department of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, The First People’s Hospital of Xiangtan City Affiliated to Nanhua University, Hunan, China
Haiming Zhang
Department of Infectious Disease and Public Health, Central Hospital of Xiangtan, Hunan province, China
Haiyan Xue
Department of Infectious Disease and Public Health, Central Hospital of Xiangtan, Hunan province, China
Sha Lin
Department of Infectious Disease and Public Health, Central Hospital of Xiangtan, Hunan province, China
Yi Pei
Department of Tuberculosis, Changsha Central Hospital, Changsha, China
Jingwen Ai
Department of Infectious Disease, Huashan Hospital Affiliated to Fudan University, Shanghai, China; Corresponding author.
Jun Chen
Department of Liver Diseases, Third Hospital of Shenzhen, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen, Guangdong, China
Tropheryma whipplei (TW) is the root cause of Whipple’s disease (WD), a rare infectious illness leading to multi-organ impairment. A prominent feature of WD is acute pneumonia, which can be exceedingly challenging to diagnose clinically due to the pathogen’s surreptitious nature. However and significantly, with the advent of metagenomic next-generation sequencing (mNGS) of bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF), it offers clinicians a potent tool at their disposal to detect TW infections. The present study conducted a retrospective analysis of clinical data gleaned from five patients in Hunan Province in China. Findings in this study demonstrated the potential of BALF-mNGS in diagnosing pneumonia caused by TW infection.
