A submucosal variant of Whipple's disease.

We describe an unusual case of Whipple's disease, in a patient previously treated for tuberculosis, in which involvement of the small intestine was restricted to the submucosa. This is of diagnostic importance since the presence of Whipple's disease cannot be established by jejunal biopsy in such cases unless the submucosa is adequately sampled. It is possible that this unusual distribution of intestinal infection is related to the effects of e antibiotic therapy. Retrospective study of the patient's serum cholesterol, carotene, and albumin suggests that malabsorption may occur in Whipple's disease despite the absence of infection in the mucosa.