Radovici or Jeavons syndrome? Reply to comments

Abstract

Dear Editor-in-Chief I would like to thank Striano for giving me the opportunity to write a few words on Radovici or Jeavons. There is no doubt that Radovici (1932, 1996) first described a case that could be classified as eyelid myoclonia and absences (seizure type) and or as self-induced epilepsy (Jeavons and Harding, 1975), in the same way we diagnose and classify them today. Furthermore, in those days when the EEG was at early stages of development, clinical observations were impossible to be matched with EEG findings. Even in recent years eminent epileptologists misdiagnosed Jeavons syndrome and eyeclosure sensitivity is seen in some EEG figure of Janz and Christian’s original paper in JME (Stefan and Theodore, 2012). In the book of Wallace and Farrel in 2004 it is stated that the first case of eyelid myoclonia was recognized by Radovici but subsequently Jeavons described ELMA as a syndrome. Therefore, there is no doubt that Jeavons first put together the cluster of clinical and EEG characteristics and first stated that constitute a separate type of photosensitive epilepsy. In my recent paper (Covanis, 2015) my aim was to review eyelid myoclonia and absences as a syndrome, named Jeavons syndrome and add to numerous reports since 1977 in order for Jeavons syndrome to be reconized as such by the International Community. A recent report gives us hope (Fisher et al., 2015).