Two cases of Whipple's disease showing clinical and morphological similarity

Abstract

Two cases of Whipple's disease are reported in which a parallel course is confirmed between the clinical and ultrastructural findings. This is not so with light microscopy since it takes much longer for these findings to return to normal. In case 1, the presence of bacilli circulating freely in the sinusoid of a lymph node is described. Case 2 demonstrates the existence of special granulomata formed by atypical macrophage histiocytes which appear in coagulative necrosis together with a closely adherent crown of lymphocytes. Furthermore, these histiocytes have moved towards the deepest part of the lamina propria, and have become dissociated from the muscularis mucosae causing a diverticulosis of the small intestine.