Review for 10.1186/s12876-020-01465-y (2020)

Reviewer’ s report
Title: The efficacy of pancreatic juice cytology with liquid-based cytology for evaluating
malignancy in patients with intraductal papillary mucinous neoplasm
Version: 2Date: 28 Jun 2020
Reviewer's report:
The authors evaluated the efficacy of PJC with LBC for diagnosing malignant IPMN when
compared to conventional preparation. One major limitation is that the study was retrospective andcompared 2 groups of patients derived from different time intervals. Although the authors did notreport any differences in the clinicopathologic features of the 2 groups, there are other cofoundingfactors, e.g. training/experience of the endoscopists, training/experience of the pathologists, thetype of endoscopes used for obtaining pancreatic juice.
Were all procedures performed by the same endoscopists? Were all cytology evaluated by the
same cytologists? If not, how did the authors account for the differences in term of endoscopistsand/or cytologists?
The authors did not explain why LBC was more superior to conventional preparation—cellularity?
Cytomorphology?
Did the authors analyze the CEA levels of the pancreatic juice?The English was not well written with relatively substantial grammatical errors.
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Are the methods appropriate and well described?
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NoDoes the work include the necessary controls?
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Yes
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I am able to assess the statisticsQuality of written English
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Acceptable
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