Whipple's disease of the central nervous system

Summary Whipple's disease presenting as a neurological disease without gastrointestinal symptoms is an unusual occurrence. A 40 year old man suffered hypersomnia, memory loss and progressive ophthalmoplegia for 6 months prior to death. The nature of his disease was not established during life. Extensive granulomatous inflammation affecting the hypothalamus, hippocampus and periaqueductal gray matter of the brain was found to represent Whipple's disease by electron microscopy. Characteristic lesions were also present in spleen, mesenteric lymph nodes, small intestine and myocardium. Bacillary bodies and membranous inclusions similar to those seen in visceral lesions of Whipple's disease were present in macrophages. The findings supported the theory of direct involvement of the central nervous system by bacilli rather than a metabolic origin for the lesions.     

Rapidly progressive Whipple's disease of the central nervous system

We describe a patient with rapidly progressive Whipple's disease confined to the central nervous system (CNS). The diagnosis was made pre-mortem following stereotactic and open brain biopsis and confirmed at autopsy. Despite appropriate antibiotic treatment, the disease ran a fulminant course to death after nine weeks.     

Diagnostic guidelines in central nervous system Whipple's disease

Many cases of central nervous system (CNS) Whipple's disease are not diagnosed until postmortem. Few reviews of CNS Whipple's disease have delineated the frequencies of abnormalities on neurological examination, cerebrospinal fluid studies, neuroimaging, and intestinal biopsy studies. Guidelines for diagnosis and treatment have not been proposed. In this review we present 3 new cases of CNS Whipple's disease and summarize the literature to determine the frequencies of neurological signs and abnormalities on diagnostic testing. We propose guidelines for diagnostic screening, selection for biopsy, and treatment. Review of the 84 cases of CNS Whipple's disease (81 in the literature, 3 new) revealed that 80% of the patients had systemic signs. Cognitive changes were frequent (71%), and 47% with cognitive changes also had psychiatric signs. Oculomasticatory myorhythmia and oculo-facial-skeletal myorhythmia, pathognomic for CNS Whipple's disease, were present in 20% of patients, and were always accompanied by a supranuclear vertical gaze palsy. Tissue biopsy was a sensitive technique; 89% of those who had biopsies had positive biopsy results. Diagnosis and treatment of definite CNS Whipple's disease should be based on the presence of pathognomic signs (oculomasticatory myorhythmia or oculo-facial-skeletal myorhythmia) or positive biopsy or polymerase chain reaction results. Possible CNS Whipple's disease should be diagnosed in the setting of unexplained systemic symptoms and neurological signs (supranuclear vertical gaze palsy, rhythmic myoclonus, dementia with psychiatric symptoms, or hypothalamic manifestations). Those with possible CNS Whipple's diseae should undergo small-bowel biopsy.     

Isolated central nervous system Whipple's disease causing reversible frontotemporal-like dementia

We report a patient with a syndrome resembling frontotemporal dementia (FTD); however, on further diagnostic testing, the diagnosis was Whipple's disease. Because Whipple's disease is treatable, it should be considered in the workup of patients with a FTD-like behavioural and cognitive syndrome.     

The spectrum of central nervous system involvement in Whipple's disease

Background and purpose

To assess the clinical spectrum of central nervous system (CNS) involvement as well as cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and neuroimaging findings in patients with Whipple's disease (WD) and to analyze the association of neurological symptoms with CSF and imaging findings.

Methods

Neurological involvement was retrospectively analyzed in a series of 36 patients diagnosed with WD at a single center between 1992 and 2019. Findings of 81 comprehensive CSF examinations from 36 patients, including polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests for Tropheryma whipplei (TW) in CSF from 35 patients, were systematically evaluated. The prevalence of ischemic stroke in patients with WD was compared to a matched control cohort.

Results

Neurological symptoms occurred in 23 of 36 (63.9%) patients, with cognitive, motor, and oculomotor dysfunction being most frequent. TW was detected by PCR in CSF of 13 of 22 (59.1%) patients with and four of 13 (30.8%, p = 0.0496) patients without neurological symptoms. Total CSF protein (p = 0.044) and lactate (p = 0.035) were moderately elevated in WD with neurologic symptoms compared with WD without. No intrathecal immunoglobulin synthesis was observed. Three of 36 (8.3%) patients had hydrocephalus due to aqueductal stenosis. Patients with WD had an unexpectedly high prevalence of ischemic stroke (10/36, 27.7%) compared to matched controls (10/360, 3.2%).

Conclusions

Neurological involvement in patients with WD is common. Detection of TW DNA in CSF is only partly associated with neurological symptoms. Elevated CSF parameters suggest CNS parenchymal infection. Stroke is a hitherto underrecognized manifestation of WD. These findings suggest that mechanisms beyond CNS infection contribute to the spectrum of CNS involvement in WD.     

Whipple''s disease confined to the nervous system

Whipple's disease confined to the nervous system occurred in a 36-year old woman who presented with grand mal seizures and dementia. There was no evidence of extracerebral involvement and the jejunal biopsy was negative before treatment. Multiple enhancing lesions on CT scan progressed despite therapy with minocycline and prednisone, but resolved on treatment with tetracycline. The dementia did not progress while she was on antibiotic therapy. Whipple's disease should be considered as a treatable cause of progressive dementia even in the absence of an abnormal jejunal biopsy.     

不典型性中枢神经系统Whipple病:一例报告并文献复习

目的结合文献探讨中枢神经系统Whipple病的诊断与治疗特点,以提高对该病的认识。方法回顾分析1例以头痛、左侧肢休无力,伴记忆力减退为首发症状的不典型性中枢神经系统Whipple病的临床诊断与治疗经过,并进行文献复习。结果女性患者,35岁。首发症状表现为头痛、肢体无力及记忆力减退,但不伴发热、癫癎发作。病程进展过程中相继出现阵发性四肢抽动、右侧下肢无力、小便失禁、多食、体质量增加、停经、体温波动,大剂量糖皮质激素及青露素、复方磺胺甲噁唑等抗炎药物治疗无效,随着颅内压逐渐升高,脑疝形成。腰椎穿刺脑脊液检测仅蛋广白定量显著升高。脑电图提示右侧前额颞区慢波。MRI呈以右侧大脑半球、额顶颢叶、半卵圆中心及基底节为主的大片长T₁、长T₂信号,并不均匀疏松团状强化,病灶周围水肿,占位效应明显,并累及左侧大脑半球。病理学检查呈现大片状坏死,脑组织及血管周围大量淋巴细胞和浆细胞浸润,伴大量格子细胞渗出,胞质丰富,内含大量六胺银和PAS染色阳性的细小颗粒状物质。排除中枢神经系统肿瘤、脱髓鞘病变及炎性假瘤等疾病。结论中枢神经系统Whipple病极为罕见,临床及影像学表现复杂多样,病理学检查仅能提示特殊感染,治疗困难,误诊率及病死率高。早期进行组织活检,结合临床表现及病理学特征可以明确诊断,经规范的抗生素治疗,患者可获得良好预后。     

Glutamine synthetase in the central nervous system is not confined to astrocytes.

Glutamine synthetase (GS) immunoreactivity is frequently used as an astroglial 'marker'. However, when sections of adult rat spinal cords were immunostained with antibodies against sheep glutamine synthetase, intense immunofluorescence was observed in cells resembling oligodendrocytes. In white matter in the rat brain GS immunostaining was also found in ovoid oligodendrocyte-like cells, whereas in gray matter in the same tissue sections GS immunostaining was found in astrocytes. Like the antibodies against sheep GS, antibodies against rat GS also immunostained putative oligodendrocytes, and colocalization with 2',3'-cyclic nucleotide-3'-phosphohydrolase in spinal cord supported the designation of the GS-positive cells as oligodendrocytes.     

Polymerase chain reaction—based detection of Tropheryma whippelii in central nervous system Whipple's disease

Whipple's disease of the central nervous system (CNS) may be associated with normal intestinal histology as a result of minimal or patchy involvement. The diagnosis is difficult and is frequently made post mortem. We studied 6 patients with clinically suspected CNS Whipple's disease; 2 had oculomasticatory myorhythmia (OMM) fitting criteria for a diagnosis of definite CNS Whipple's disease. One of the 2 had duodenal histology highly suggestive of Whipple's disease; the other 5 patients had normal duodenal histology. DNA was extracted from paraffin-embedded duodenal tissues in all patients and frozen pontine tissue in 1. Two primer pairs (WF-WR, W3F-W2R) were used in separate polymerase chain reactions (PCRs) to amplify fragments of Tropheryma whippelii 16S rDNA from these tissue samples. PCR amplicons were detected only in the duodenal tissues from the 2 patients with OMM. The sequences of these amplicons were identical to the corresponding region of the previously published Tropheryma whippelii 16S rDNA sequence. PCR-based assays of intestinal or brain tissue may be of value for confirming, and possibly refuting, a clinical diagnosis of CNS Whipple's disease in a patient with any combination of dementia, supranuclear gaze palsy, hypothalamic manifestations, myoclonus, seizures, ataxia, or OMM, especially when tissue histology is unrevealing.     

B-cell neurolymphomatosis confined to the peripheral nervous system

Patients with neurolymphomatosis show lymphoma cells within the peripheral nerves, nerve root/plexus, or cranial nerves. However, most neurolymphomatosis patients show lymphomatous infiltration not only in the peripheral nervous system (PNS), but also in the meninges, Virchow–Robin space, and brain parenchyma. Here, we report a 74-year-old woman with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma presenting with motor–sensory–autonomic polyneuropathy and multiple cranial neuropathies. A diagnosis of neurolymphomatosis was made by sural nerve biopsy. Postmortem examination indicated that lymphoma cell infiltration in the nervous system was confined to the PNS with no involvement of the central nervous system, including the meninges. This was a very rare case of B-cell neurolymphomatosis with lymphomatous infiltration confined to the PNS, suggesting specific affinity of the lymphoma cells for the PNS in this patient.     

Whipple's disease with isolated central nervous system symptomatology diagnosed by molecular identification of Tropheryma whippelii in peripheral blood

We report a new case of Whipple's disease (WD) confined to the central nervous system. The patient presented with ataxia, ophthalmoplegia, hypersomnia, hemiparesis and generalized myorhythmia. The diagnosis was confirmed by identification of specific sequences of the causal agent of WD, the actinobacteria Tropheryma whippelii (TW), by PCR of DNA extracted from peripheral blood. An epidemiological survey of TW in patients with dementia suggests that WD is an uncommon cause of dementia in our population. Molecular methods may allow rapid identification of TW in peripheral fluids, and non-invasive diagnosis of this disorder.     

Amyloid in central nervous system disease

A review is presented of diseases of the central nervous system associated with amyloid deposition. The name amyloid is given to substances with particular physical characteristics which are independent of the chemical constitution of the proteins in the substance. Ideally, a classification of amyloid diseases should be based on the chemical composition of the amyloid deposits; this has only been partially realized. The best documented group of diseases with amyloid deposition in the central nervous system is the group of ‘cerebral β amyloid diseases’, characterized by the deposition of β-protein. This group includes: Alzheimer's disease, sporadic cerebral amyloid angiopathy, Down's syndrome, Parkinson-dementia of Guam, hereditary cerebral hemorrhage with amyloidosis-Dutch type and age-related asymptomatic amyloid angiopathy.     

Chronic Borrelia disease of the central nervous system

A few years ago meningoradiculitis Garin-Bujadoux-Bannwarth (Bannwarth's syndrome) was discovered to be a neurological manifestation of Lyme disease transmitted by tick-bites and caused by Ixodes-ricinus-spirochaete (borrelia burgdorferi). Not enough attention is given to the fact that more serious and chronic disease of the central nervous system may be entailed. Two cases are reported in which detection of the borrelian-antibodies corroborated the diagnosis. After parenteral treatment with penicillin there was a drastic improvement in both patients.     

Rosai-Dorfman disease of the central nervous system.

Rosai-Dorfman disease (RDD) is an idiopathic, non-neoplastic, lymphoproliferative disorder characterized by sinus histiocytosis and massive lymphadenopathy. When RDD involves the central nervous system the lesion simulates a meningioma. Histological and immunohistochemical confirmation is essential for a definitive diagnosis. In this paper, ten cases of RDD confined to the central nervous system are reported. Another case with orbital RDD was excluded. Nine cases involved the cranial cavity alone; in one, the cervical extradural region was also involved. Treatment consisted of surgical excision or biopsy. Histology and immunohistochemistry revealed a mixed cell population of predominantly mature histiocytes with evidence of emperipolesis and strong positivity for S100 protein in all cases. No recurrence was observed during follow up ranging from three months to eight years.     

Cerebrovascular disease in central nervous system infections

Cerebrovascular disease is a complication of a variety of infections affecting the central nervous system (CNS). Infection may cause vasculitis affecting primarily the vessels at the base of the brain in the setting of meningitis; an immune-mediated parainfectious process leading to vasospasm or thrombosis; or a hypercoagulable state in combination with endothelial dysfunction resulting from activation of inflammatory and procoagulant cascades. Although systemic signs and symptoms may be present to aid in the diagnosis, cerebral infarction secondary to infection may be indistinguishable from more typical causes of stroke. Confirmation of an infectious vasculitis may also be challenging, as brain biopsy, the gold standard for diagnosis, is rarely pursued. In many CNS infections, vascular complications portend a poor prognosis as they are often associated with devastating neurologic outcomes, including death, underscoring the importance of early recognition and appropriate therapy. In this review, we address bacterial, viral, fungal, and parasitic causes of cerebrovascular disease.