Tropheryma whipplei Infection of an acellular porcine heart valve bioprosthesis in a patient who did not have intestinal Whipple's disease.

ABSTRACT: Rare cases of culture-negative infective endocarditis are caused by Tropheryma whipplei, the uncommon bacterium of Whipple's disease. We evaluated an 80-year-old woman with valvular heart disease but without intestinal Whipple's disease. The diagnosis of aortic valve xenograft culture-negative infection with T. whipplei was established by multiple molecular assays and by electron microscopy. First, a PCR with broad-range primers identified the complete 16S ribosomal DNA of T. whipplei in bioprosthesis tissue. Novel real-time reverse transcription-PCR assays were developed to detect mRNAs encoding recently identified proteins determined from the T. whipplei genome, specifically Whipplei surface protein (TW113) and a DNA polymerase III subunit (TW727). The positive detection of mRNAs indicat

SUBMITTER: Dreier J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC522317 | biostudies-literature | 2004 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature