Dear Editor,
We appreciate the cautionary remarks by Hamilton and Zuberi [1] in response to our recent case report [2]. They express concerns that the presented case had been labelled as “epileptic” in the absence of sufficient evidence.
Indeed, the exact nature of the event is unclear. The circumstances prevented a direct observation of the development of symptoms, and we had no influence on the subsequent examinations that were performed routinely in the neuropediatric unit. As per the patient files, no EEG was performed.
Given this uncertainty, we carefully avoided using “epilepsy” or “epileptic” when describing the event itself. Of course, we could not avoid using these terms when providing a larger context, referring to the literature, or addressing the patient history. We regret that this may have caused the impression that we were certain about the classification of the event.
We are grateful to Hamilton and Zuberi for pointing us to the CEVnet archive.
Funding
Open Access funding enabled and organized by Projekt DEAL. No other funding was received.
Compliance with ethical standards
Conflict of interest
The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
Statement of human rights
All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Declaration of Helsinki and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.
Statement on the welfare of animals
This letter does not contain any studies with animals performed by any of the authors.
Informed consent
No procedures were specifically performed for this letter. See original case report [2] for further details.
Footnotes
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References
- 1.Hamilton R, Zuberi SM Insufficient evidence to support the clinical diagnosis of an epileptic seizure. Doc Ophthalmol. 10.1007/s10633-021-09838-8 [DOI] [PubMed]
- 2.Heinrich SP, Agostini H. Seizure triggered by flicker electroretinogram in a patient with no history of epilepsy. Doc Ophthalmol. 2020 doi: 10.1007/s10633-020-09813-9. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]