Epilepsy and Driving Regulation in Korea

In Korea, current status of epilepsy and driving are challenging and there are lack of formal legal guidelines about driving in patients with epilepsy. According to the default standards in Korean Road Traffic law, patients with epilepsy are restricted or prohibited from driving except who are conditionally allowed to drive by the Aptitude Judgement Committee (AJC). Though the AJC consist of medical doctors and traffic officials, new regulation and guidelines are required for various type of seizure and characteristics of patients with epilepsy. This review outlines the current applicable legislation about epilepsy and driving in Korea as well as that of the overseas country calling for new laws to establish a consistent assessment.

Expression of RANTES mRNA in Early Recurrent Nasal Polyps / 대한이비인후과학회지

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: RANTES is a powerful chemotactic and activating factor to some inflammatory cells including eosinophils, which represent the most abundant cell type among the numerous cellular infiltrates of nasal polyps. RANTES may have an important role in the recruitment of inflammatory cells during the development of nasal polyps. The purpose of this study is to investigate RANTES mRNA expression in nasal polyps, ethmoiditis mucosa and in the early recurrent nasal polyps in order to identify its role as a chemoattractant in recurrent nasal polyps. MATERIALS: Tissue samples of nasal polyps, ethmoiditis mucosa, and early recurrent nasal polyps were obtained from an endoscopic sinus surgery. For these samples, light microscopic examination for histopathology and RT-PCRs for RANTES mRNA expression were performed. Three normal ethmoidal mucosa and four hypertrophied inferior turbinates were also evaluated. RESULTS: Tissue infiltration of eosinophils observed under the light microscope was in the following order: early recurrent nasal polyps (91%), nasal polyps (60%), and ethmoiditis mucosa (40%). About 97% of early recurrent nasal polyps showed RANTES mRNA expression, but nasal polyps and ethmoiditis mucosa showed 60% and 56% of expression rates. CONCLUSION: The results suggest that RANTES may play an important role in the development of early recurrent nasal polyps undergoing active inflammatory reactions and the recruitment of some inflammatory cells including eosinophils. Further investigations for other chemokines related to eosinophils will provide better understanding of the mechanism in the formation of nasal polyps.