We would like to thank our colleagues for their interest in our work (1). They rightly mentioned that there is a discrepancy in the evaluation of guidelines in recently published paper (2). However, this topic is discussed in detail in our manuscript and we make particular reference to this in the discussion (3). In particular, we outline to the readership that some of the limitations are inherent to the limitations of the Appraisal of Guidelines Research and Evaluation II (AGREE II) checklist itself. We draw special attention to the AGREE II tool giving equal weight to all of its domains, implying that they are all equally as important as each other in formulating an overall impression of a guideline. However, this may not necessarily be the case. Furthermore, we underlined that although the assessors were blinded to one another’s answers, loyalty to home/regional societies or familiarity with certain guidelines could have swayed an assessor’s score. Moreover, these limitations have been mentioned in our previous publications appraising guidelines for other clinical conditions (4-6).
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Acknowledgments
Funding: None.
Ethical Statement: The authors are accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.
Footnotes
Provenance and Peer Review: This article was commissioned by the editorial office Annals of Translational Medicine. The article did not undergo external peer review.
Conflicts of Interest: All authors have completed the ICMJE uniform disclosure form (available at https://atm.amegroups.com/article/view/10.21037/atm-2023-10/coif). The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare.
References
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