Most primary intestinal natural killer (NK)-cell and T-cell lymphomas (PINKTL) in the Northern Europe are enteropathy-associated T-cell lymphomas, a complication of celiac disease, which is rare in the East. Primary intestinal NK-cell lymphoma is extremely rare and is poorly characterized. We investigated 30 cases of PINKTL from Taiwan with male: female at 2:1, median age at 55.5, 80% with jejunal/ileal involvement, 77% with perforation, 27% with multicentric tumors, and 67% at stage IE. All 7 cases tested for serum IgA anti-tissue transglutaminase were negative. Only 3 (10%) tumors showed enteropathy. Six (20%) were NK-cell lymphoma and 24 (80%) were T-cell lymphoma. The tumor cells in 21/30 (70%) cases were small to medium sized, which correlated with the coexpression of both CD8 and CD56. All tumors expressed at least 1 cytotoxic marker. All 6 NK-cell lymphomas were negative for betaF1, diffusely positive for Epstein-Barr virus-encoded mRNA (EBER), and polyclonal for T-cell receptor gene rearrangement. Five (22%) of the 24 T-cell tumors expressed betaF1, 8 (35%) of the 23 tumors were positive for EBER, and 20 (95%) of the 21 tumors were clonal for T-cell receptor. The overall 1-year survival was 36%. Univariate regression analysis showed that NK-cell lineage, multicentricity, and perforation were associated with poor prognosis. NK-cell lineage (P=0.037) was a poor prognostic factor by multivariate Cox proportional hazard regression analysis. PINKTL in Taiwan is predominantly not enteropathic with a high frequency of perforation, small to medium tumor cell size and cytotoxic phenotype. Primary intestinal NK-cell lymphoma carries a very poor prognosis, and is probably a distinct entity.
The policy enforcing visiting restriction during the COVID-19 pandemic may cause feelings of social isolation among residents in long-term care facilities. This study aimed to explore family members' concerns for their relatives during the lockdown period, assess their level of acceptance of the visiting restriction policy and determine the associated factors. Methods: From the 156 family members interviewed, demographic data, satisfaction with overall care quality, worry and concerns for their relatives, acceptance of the visiting restriction and arrangement for the residents if cluster infections occur in the facility were recorded. Results: Among the members interviewed, 83 (53.2%) were men; mean age of members was 56.3 AE 9.8; most were offspring of residents in the facility (n = 121, 77.6%), most visited the residents at least once a week (n = 113, 72.4%) before the lockdown. The most common concerns of the family members for their relatives were psychological stress (38.5%), followed by nursing care (26.9%) and daily activity (21.1%). Nearly 84.6% of those interviewed accepted the visiting restriction policy, and a higher satisfaction rating independently associated with acceptance of the visiting restriction policy (odds ratio 2.15). Conclusions: During the lockdown period, staff members should provide more psychological information about residents to their family members. Higher satisfaction rating was found to be independent of the acceptance of the visiting restriction policy. Therefore, good quality of care of the facility wins the trust of family members, and this might mitigate the tension between the family members and staff during a major crisis.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.