A 51-year-old man with diarrhea, weight loss, joint pain, and fever suffered cardiac arrest and was resuscitated. Imaging revealed mobile vegetations on his aortic and mitral valves. Despite blood tests showing no infections, surgery was performed to replace the valves. Testing revealed the presence of Tropheryma whipplei, a common bacterium that rarely causes Whipple's disease, a chronic and sometimes life-threatening infection affecting mainly middle-aged Caucasian men. Genetic factors and immune response deficiencies may contribute to the rarity of the disease despite the bacterium's commonality in the environment.
"Doctors saw 'vegetation' on both his aortic valve and mitral valve. Vegetations are clumps or masses that often build up from an infection, generally containing a bundle of proteins, platelets, and infecting germs stuck together."
"The man had in his heart Tropheryma whipplei, a very common environmental bacterium that dwells in soil. Only in exceedingly rare cases does it cause an infection—but when it does it's a systemic, chronic, and sometimes life-threatening one called Whipple's disease."
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