Pathological and immunohistological findings and genetic aberrations of intestinal enteropathy-associated T cell lymphoma in Japan.

AIMS: To elucidate the clinicopathological findings of primary intestinal enteropathy-associated T cell lymphoma (EATL) in Japan, a non-endemic area for coeliac disease. METHODS AND RESULTS: Of the 24 cases, four (17%) had large-cell lymphoma (type I), and the remaining 20 (83%) had medium-sized lymphoma (type II). Lymphoma cells of the three type I cases were CD56-positive. Only one (4%) case showed typical CD56- and CD8-negative and CD30-positive type I EATL. In type II EATL, lymphoma cells of the 16 (80%) and 11 (55%) cases were positive for CD56 and CD8, respectively. Intramucosal tumour spreading and adjacent enteropathy-like lesions were detected in 15 (71%) and 16 (76%) of 21 cases, with a severe increase of intraepithelial lymphocytes (IELs) in 12 (57%). IELs of enteropathy-like lesions in five (24%) cases expressed T-bet, with no cases of CD30-positive IELs. Characteristic findings from comparative genomic hybridization of 15 cases indicated gains of 8q2 (47%), Xp (53%) and Xq (73%), but no gain of 9q3. Regarding, human leucocyte antigen (HLA) status, six cases examined did not express the DQB1*02 allele. CONCLUSIONS: Japanese EATL exhibited different histology, cytogenetic findings and HLA status from those of typical type I EATL. The rare incidence of coeliac disease may influence the tumour cell characteristics of EATL and IELs.

[Psychophysiological effects of hand massage in geriatric facility residents].

OBJECTIVES: Geriatric facility residents experience easy decrease of their quality of life (QOL) compared with elderly people cared for in their own homes owing to environmental changes. Because complementary and alternative medicine is useful to improve QOL, a simple manual for hand massage for inexperienced volunteers was developed, and the physical and psychological effects of this method were examined. METHODS: Thirty-six female geriatric facility residents (mean age, 84.5 years) were chosen. They were divided into two groups: the control and hand-massaged groups. In the hand-massaged group, females received 15 min hand massage from volunteers in accordance with a simple manual. No hand massage was performed in the control group. Before and after the treatment, a survey using a questionnaire (7 items; e.g., tension, fatigue) and physiological measurements (e.g., blood pressure, hand skin temperature), and measurement of cortisol and chromogranin A levels in saliva samples using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay kits were carried out. Data were analyzed by two-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) to determine the effects of group and time on the dependent variables. RESULTS: The hand-massaged group showed greater increases in skin temperature than the control group, as shown by ANOVA (p<.05). Results showed that improvements of the scores in the questionnaire (condition and feel-good items) were greater in the hand-massaged group than in the control group (p<.05). Cortisol level increased in the control group, but was not statistically significantly different from that in the hand-massaged group, as shown by ANOVA. Chromogranin A level was also not significantly different between the two groups. CONCLUSIONS: These results confirmed the benefits of complementary and alternative medicine including touching and massage found in previous studies. Hand massage prompted relaxation in geriatric facility residents in this experiment.