Prevalence of Epilepsy and Its Association with Exposure to Toxocara canis: A Community-Based, Case-Control Study from Rural Northern India.

Sir,

We thank Vibha D for her interest in our article. While increasing the sample size will definitely increase power of the study, the sample size was estimated to be 240 individuals (120 cases and 120 controls) to detect an odds ratio of 2.0 with 80% power at a two-sided level of significance of 5%. Hence, the study was conducted with an appropriate sample size. The specificity of 92% is reasonably high, and thus, serological testing for Toxocara canis can be used to confirm infection with T. canis.[1] Moreover, we did Western blot in all the positive samples to further improve the sensitivity and specificity of the results. Furthermore, this study did not aim to estimate the prevalence of asymptomatic calcified lesions in the brain. In the meta-analysis,[2] there was a positive association between T. canis and epilepsy. Our results were similar to a previously published study from India.[3] The discrepancy between results of the present study and some of the other studies can be due to different socioeconomic conditions and lifestyles of people living in different countries as well as to different methodologies adopted by different authors.[45]

Financial support and sponsorship

The study was funded by the Indian Council of Medical Research, New Delhi.

Conflicts of interest

There are no conflicts of interest.