JerMa88/BMC_Gastroenterology_Peer_Reviews huggingface dataset:
Review for 10.1186/1471-230X-13-60 (2013)

Reviewer's report
Title:Transarterial chemoembolization for hepatocellular carcinoma with portal
vein tumor thrombus: A meta-analysis
Version: 1Date:10 January 2013
Reviewer: Yoon Jun Kim
Reviewer's report:
The authors conducted this meta-analysis using nonrandomized trials having
different study design including 3 prospective controlled studies and 5
retrospective studies. In this case, bias of each group was not fully balanced in
this study and the comparability of prognosis could not be ensured. However, as
the authors stated, the real “randomized” trials are difficult to be designed and
performed. The authors performed a meta-analysis based on thorough
systematic review. They found that TACE significantly improved the overall
6-month (HR, 0.41; 95% CI: 0.32, 0.53; z, 6.28; p=.000) and 1-year (HR, 0.44;
95% CI: 0.34, 0.57; z, 6.22; p=.000) survival of patients with PVTT compared
with conservative treatment. In addition, they demonstrated that the severe
deadly complications were very low, even if in patients with MPV obstruction.
Based on these findings, the authors concluded that TACE has potential to incur
a survival benefit and is safe for advanced HCC with PVTT. This is a
well-conducted study but the following comment is to be addressed before its
publication.
<Discretionary Revisions>
1. Because of no full text, four trials from Europe, and another trial from Asia
were not included in this study. Although the authors performed sensitivity
analysis to rule out publication bias, the possibility of publication bias still may
exist. The authors may need to provide additional funnel plot and describe the
results of these excluded five studies.
Level of interest: An article of importance in its field
Quality of written English: Acceptable
Statistical review: No, the manuscript does not need to be seen by a
statistician.
Declaration of competing interests:
I declare that I have no competing interests.
Review for 10.1186/1471-230X-13-60 (2013)

Reviewer's report
Title:Transarterial chemoembolization for hepatocellular carcinoma with portal
vein tumor thrombus: A meta-analysis
Version: 1Date:9 February 2013
Reviewer: Robert De Knegt
Reviewer's report:
The treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma remains a challenge for all doctors,
and despite important improvements over the last years prognosis has remained
poor. When contraindications exist to proceed with liver transplantation or
surgical resection, several options remain: radio frequency ablation, transarterial
chemo-embolization and sorafenib. In this manuscript a meta-analysis on
transarterial chemoembilization is being described.
The authors have performed their analysis according to well accepted standards,
and therefor their conclusions should be considered valid. There is a good
description of the strong points of the study, and the weak points. With regard to
the last one, definitely the absence of controlled randomized trials. However, with
the papers included in the analysis, the number of patients is such that indeed
transarterial chemo-embilization should be considered beneficial. This means
that no major revisions are needed.
However, the manuscript should be corrected by a native speaker before
publication, as there are many smaller linguistic and typing errors.
The lay-out of table 1 should be improved, it is difficult to oversee all the
information given.
Level of interest: An article of importance in its field
Quality of written English: Needs some language corrections before being
published
Statistical review: No, the manuscript does not need to be seen by a
statistician.
Declaration of competing interests:
I declare that I have no competing interests
Review for 10.1186/1471-230X-13-59 (2013)

Reviewer's report
Title:Crohn's Disease Presenting With Orbital Myositis After Loss Of Response
To Infliximab And Then Responding To Adalimumab - A Case Report And
Review Of The Literature
Version: 4Date:15 December 2012
Reviewer: Ekrem Unal
Reviewer's report:
Dear Authors,
I would like to congratulate you for your effort.
Although there are several case report of about orbital myositis associated with
Crohn’s Disease, the presented case is original and worth publishing with the
usage of Adalimumab.
Level of interest: An article of outstanding merit and interest in its field
Quality of written English: Acceptable
Statistical review: No, the manuscript does not need to be seen by a
statistician.
Review for 10.1186/1471-230X-13-59 (2013)

Reviewer's report
Title:Crohn's Disease Presenting With Orbital Myositis After Loss Of Response
To Infliximab And Then Responding To Adalimumab - A Case Report And
Review Of The Literature
Version: 4Date:21 December 2012
Reviewer: JOHN KATSIMPRIS
Reviewer's report:
The article could be considered as it is
Level of interest: An article of importance in its field
Quality of written English: Acceptable
Statistical review: No, the manuscript does not need to be seen by a
statistician.
Declaration of competing interests:
I declare that I have no competing interests
Review for 10.1186/1471-230X-13-58 (2013)

Reviewer's report
Title:Serum sodium based modification of the MELD does not improve
prediction of outcome in acute liver failure
Version: 2Date:22 January 2013
Reviewer: Heike Bantel
Reviewer's report:
In the present study the authors analyzed the performance of predictive scores in
ALF patients. The work comprises the KCC, MELD, UK-ELD and a newly
generated Na-MELD including serum sodium, replacing bilirubin. The authors
found the MELD to be superior to all other scores and a lack of prognostic value
for serum sodium or sodium modifications of existing scores. Since performance
of these prognostic systems was evaluated in 108 prospectively recruited
patients, the study is of high clinical relevance. The data is presented and
discussed appropriately. Although the authors present negative data, their
findings are relevant for the clinical management of ALF.
My suggestion would be to address some minor points:
1. Discussion of current publications on the topic would be important. There is
one recent work, where a lack of prognostic value for serum sodium in ALF is
implied: PMID: 23054946. Another paper discusses a completely novel score
including serum sodium: PMID: 22526269. A very recent work shows a survival
prediction of MELD-Na in waiting list patients: PMID: 23194386.
2. As the authors write: “ALF was diagnosed by significant liver dysfunction with
pathologically increased laboratory parameters (bilirubin, AST, ALT, AP,
#-GT)…” it would be quite informative to supply the applied limits for a
“pathological increase” as these limits have been discussed in the past and are
of some importance for clinical application of the presented data.
3. The quality of the pdf file for figure 1 and 3 is rather low and should be
improved.
Level of interest: An article of outstanding merit and interest in its field
Quality of written English: Acceptable
Statistical review: No, the manuscript does not need to be seen by a
statistician.
Declaration of competing interests:
I declare that I have no competing interests
Review for 10.1186/1471-230X-13-58 (2013)

Reviewer's report
Title:Serum sodium based modification of the MELD does not improve
prediction of outcome in acute liver failure
Version: 2Date:9 February 2013
Reviewer: Heshaam Mir
Reviewer's report:
Minor Essential Revisions
1) Abstract: consider writing out what the acronym AUROC stands for (Area
Under the Receiver Operating Characteristic Curve)
2) Body-Statistics: consider writing out what the acronym ANOVA stands for
(Analysis of Variance)
3) Discussion (last paragraph): "..which is novel because IT BUILDS upon..."
Level of interest: An article of importance in its field
Quality of written English: Acceptable
Statistical review: No, the manuscript does not need to be seen by a
statistician.
Declaration of competing interests:
I declare that I have no competing interests.
Review for 10.1186/1471-230X-13-57 (2013)

Reviewer's report
Title:MDR1 polymorphisms are associated with inflammatory bowel disease in a
cohort of Croatian IBD patients
Version: 1Date:21 September 2012
Reviewer: Manuela Neuman
Reviewer's report:
1.Is the question posed by the authors well defined? Yes
2. Are the methods appropriate and well described? Yes
3. Are the data sound? Yes
4. Does the manuscript adhere to the relevant standards for reporting and data
deposition? Yes
5. Are the discussion and conclusions well balanced and adequately supported
by the data? Yes
6. Are limitations of the work clearly stated? Yes
7. Do the authors clearly acknowledge any work upon which they are building,
both published and unpublished? Yes
8. Do the title and abstract accurately convey what has been found? yes
9. Is the writing acceptable? Yes
This is a well design study correlating the role of genetic biomarkers in IBD (UC,
CD) versus normal non-diseased controls. The data comes from a very stable
region with homogenic population. The analysis is well performed, the methods
are classical. The discussion and conclusions reflect the data analysis. There are
no serious deficiencies or major compulsory revisions that I found. The research
constitutes a useful contribution to the field. I would recommend to accept the
manuscript for the publication.
Level of interest: An article of importance in its field
Quality of written English: Acceptable
Statistical review: No, the manuscript does not need to be seen by a
statistician.
Declaration of competing interests:
I declare that I have no competing interests' below. If your reply is yes to any,
please give details below.
Review for 10.1186/1471-230X-13-57 (2013)

Reviewer's report
Title:MDR1 polymorphisms are associated with inflammatory bowel disease in a
cohort of Croatian IBD patients
Version: 1Date:18 October 2012
Reviewer: DEVENDRA K AMRE
Reviewer's report:
The article investigates the role of coding SNPs in the MDR1 gene and risk for
IBD in an adult population in Croatia. It being based in an ethically different
population is its strength. It does however has the same limitations as the
previous studies that the sample sizes were modest. As such either the positive
or negative findings will need further corroboration.
Major comments
1. As the frequency of the A allele of 2677 was low any related analysis should
be excluded from Table 3.
2. Given the limited sample size, the genotype-phenotype analysis should be
excluded, not withstanding the somewhat negative associations between
perianal disease in CD. These analysis only enhance the issue of multiple
comparisons and encourage misleading interpretation.
3. The authors indicate that the T allele frequency of 2677 in their controls was
among the lowest (35.8% in the text and 35.2% in Table 3..discrepancy probably
relates to the fact that 35.8% is after exclusion of individual with the A
allele..need to confirm). It would be important to know the source of their controls
(no details currently provided) and how these frequencies relate to ethnically
similar populations. For example, are the Croats ethnically close to the
Hungarians or Slovenians? If so, I believe there have been studies carried out in
these populations for MDR1 and IBD (The Potocnik et al, study for example) and
a comparable allele freqs within these populations, would provide greater
assurance on the representativeness of the current study's control population.
The authors can consider pooling the results of the Potocnik study with their
study using the raw allele frequencies.
Minor comments
1. The significant p-values can be consistently highlighted in bold in the tables.
2. The authors can consider summarizing the findings of previous studies relating
to the 2 MDR1 SNPs in a Table to allow comparability.
Level of interest: An article of importance in its field
Quality of written English: Acceptable
Statistical review: No, the manuscript does not need to be seen by a
statistician.
Declaration of competing interests:
I declare that I have no competing interests
Review for 10.1186/1471-230X-13-57 (2013)

Reviewer's report
Title:MDR1 polymorphisms are associated with inflammatory bowel disease in a
cohort of Croatian IBD patients
Version: 1Date:21 October 2012
Reviewer: Alfreda Krupoves
Reviewer's report:
The authors carried out a case-control genetic association study in adult IBD
patient’s population. This paper is an interesting addition to the body of research
on this topic. Please find below the aspect to be improved.
Major Compulsory Revisions:
1.The process of controls selection and sample collection should be described,
as well as the possibility of genotyping errors and what attempts were made
aiming to prevent it. The period of time during which patients were followed or
recruited should be provided.
2.This paper would benefit from discussion of study internal validity (to add in the
“discussion” section). The possibility of bias should be discussed. Given small
sample size and generally low magnitude (OR < 1,5) of associations in
gene-disease studies, a power analysis should be made and presented in order
to give an idea about the magnitude of association study was adequately
powered to detect.
3.The detected association with C3435T is a silent substitution, so its role in
pathogenesis should be discussed, what is the biological plausibility supporting
this association.
4.Authors state that some (not anticipated) associations were found between
phenotype of extra intestinal manifestations, but these EM are not described in
details. What was the definition of EM should be clarified.
Minor Essential Revisions:
1.A table for the presentation of results of associations between the disease
characteristics and studied snps would be useful as well.
2.In order to render the table self-explanatory, all abbreviations have to be
specified in table foot note.
Level of interest: An article whose findings are important to those with closely
related research interests
Quality of written English: Acceptable
Statistical review: No, the manuscript does not need to be seen by a
statistician.
Declaration of competing interests:
I declare that I have no competing interests' below
Review for 10.1186/1471-230X-13-57 (2013)

Reviewer's report
Title:MDR1 polymorphisms are associated with inflammatory bowel disease in a
cohort of Croatian IBD patients
Version: 2Date:14 January 2013
Reviewer: DEVENDRA K AMRE
Reviewer's report:
Revisions suggested by reviewers were made. The article can now be accepted
for publication.
Level of interest: An article of importance in its field
Quality of written English: Acceptable
Statistical review: No, the manuscript does not need to be seen by a
statistician.
Declaration of competing interests:
'I declare that I have no competing interests'
Review for 10.1186/1471-230X-13-57 (2013)

Reviewer's report
Title:MDR1 polymorphisms are associated with inflammatory bowel disease in a
cohort of Croatian IBD patients
Version: 2Date:17 January 2013
Reviewer: Alfreda Krupoves
Reviewer's report:
The authors carried out a case-control genetic association study in adult IBD
patient’s population. This paper is an interesting addition to the body of research
on this topic.
Please find below some additional comments.
Although the type of controls is indicated now, it still not clear how they were
approached. It should be clarified whether they were selected from hospital lists
or from general population.
Please ensure that tables are cited correspondingly to their content
systematically. For instance, in results section when alleles’ frequencies are
reported, it appears that reference should be made to table 4, instead of table 3,
which is currently used.
All tables in the manuscript should be cited in the text, currently table 5 does not
appear to be mentioned in results section.
Level of interest: An article whose findings are important to those with closely
related research interests
Quality of written English: Acceptable
Statistical review: No, the manuscript does not need to be seen by a
statistician.
Review for 10.1186/1471-230X-13-54 (2013)

Reviewer's report
Title:Safety and efficacy of long-term esomeprazole 20 mg in Japanese patients
with a history of peptic ulcer receiving daily non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs
Version: 1Date:7 November 2012
Reviewer: Akinori Yanaka
Reviewer's report:
Discretionary Revisions
1.Since the efficacy of PPI is influenced by genotype of CYP2C19, it seems also
important to show the data on the adverse events of esomeprazole among three
different genotypes of CYP2C19.
2.There are 5 cases of ulcer relapse, despite the treatment of esomeprazole for 1
year period. It seems useful to show clinical characteristic of the 5 cases by
Table, in order to give us information about what kinds of risk factors are related
to NSAIDs-related ulcer relapse among patients taking with esomeprazole.
Level of interest: An article of importance in its field
Quality of written English: Acceptable
Statistical review: No, the manuscript does not need to be seen by a
statistician.
Review for 10.1186/1471-230X-13-54 (2013)

Reviewer's report
Title:Safety and efficacy of long-term esomeprazole 20 mg in Japanese patients
with a history of peptic ulcer receiving daily non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs
Version: 2Date:3 January 2013
Reviewer: Morten Würtz
Reviewer's report:
I congratulate the authors with this manuscirpt, which has been substantially
improved. I have no further comments.
Level of interest: An article of importance in its field
Quality of written English: Acceptable
Statistical review: No, the manuscript does not need to be seen by a
statistician.
Declaration of competing interests:
I declare that I have no competing interests
Review for 10.1186/1471-230X-13-56 (2013)

Reviewer's report
Title:Association of a probiotic to a Helicobacter pylori eradication regimen does
not increase efficacy or decreases the adverse effects of the treatment: a
prospective, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study.
Version: 2Date:6 September 2012
Reviewer: Marco Manfredi
Reviewer's report:
Major Compulsory Revisions
The English language is poor and often twisted with several grammatical errors.
Before considering the manuscript for the publication, it requires a full and careful
linguistic revision.
Despite this, the project study is interesting.
The authors used a second-line therapy not a rescue therapy which is used when
at least two treatment regimens failed.
It isn't clear if patients with peptic ulcer have the gastric or duodenal ulcer: it is
different both in prognosis and in follow-up.
The authors did not specify the amount of each probiotic and how the acidified
milk was obtained.
They have to reorganize the manuscript, trying to make easier to understand
each paragrah also about the presentation of data.
The references are old and often lacking of publication year.
The CI in the table must be reversed: (eg. 81-99, not 99-81-table 2)
Level of interest: An article whose findings are important to those with closely
related research interests
Quality of written English: Not suitable for publication unless extensively edited
Statistical review: Yes, but I do not feel adequately qualified to assess the
statistics.
Declaration of competing interests:
I declare that I have no competing interests
Review for 10.1186/1471-230X-13-56 (2013)

Reviewer's report
Title:Association of a probiotic to a Helicobacter pylori eradication regimen does
not increase efficacy or decreases the adverse effects of the treatment: a
prospective, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study.
Version: 2Date:26 November 2012
Reviewer: Filipa Vale
Reviewer's report:
The manuscript reports a straightforward double-blind placebo controlled trial.
The authors acknowledge the work upon which they are building, but the
discussion is limited, when comparing present results with other studies that use
similar approaches (references 38-40, discussion section).
Tables 1 to 5: in the table footnote it could be specified the name of the tests.
Table 4: this table would be easily understand if each cell report the number of
patients with adverse affects/total number of patients (x%).
Table 5: these results are not clearly described in methods section.
Other minor comments:
H. pylori is not always in italic.
Background: refer the percentage of prevalence of infection in Brazil, instead of
“…very high rate of infection…”.
State what is the MAOI (Methods section – treatment).
Figure 1 – Consider to include the discrimination of patients with PU, functional
dyspepsia, age, gender in each group.
Level of interest: An article whose findings are important to those with closely
related research interests
Quality of written English: Needs some language corrections before being
published
Statistical review: Yes, but I do not feel adequately qualified to assess the
statistics.
Declaration of competing interests:
I declare that I have no competing interests.
Review for 10.1186/1471-230X-13-55 (2013)

Reviewer's report
Title:White cell count and platelet count associate with histological alcoholic
hepatitis in jaundiced harmful drinkers
Version: 2Date:24 November 2012
Reviewer: Jochen Hampe
Reviewer's report:
Major compulsory revisions:
1. ASAT (GOT) values are not reported - thus is very unusual given alcoholic
liver disease is investigated.
2. A logistic regression model using ASAT as a convential activity marker as a
baseline model +/- platlet count and the appropriate backward selection models
should be used to formally look for the superiority of either (also WBC and
platelet count parameters)
3. only scarce information on the histological severity is available: one could for
instance do a direct pair-wise correllation analysis of histological inflammation
versus clinical predictors and look for groups based on histological inflammation
grade etc.
4. What about fibrosis: do patients with histological fibrosis also show this pattern
of laboratory abmormalities?
Minor: multiple small typos, missing spaces etc.
Level of interest: An article whose findings are important to those with closely
related research interests
Quality of written English: Acceptable
Statistical review: Yes, and I have assessed the statistics in my report.
Review for 10.1186/1471-230X-13-55 (2013)

Reviewer's report
Title:White cell count and platelet count associate with histological alcoholic
hepatitis in jaundiced harmful drinkers
Version: 3Date:5 March 2013
Reviewer: Philippe Mathurin
Reviewer's report:
The authors adress all the comments. The revised version has been significantly
improved. This study is interesting because it provides significant data in the field
of alcoholic hepatitis.
Level of interest: An article of importance in its field
Quality of written English: Acceptable
Statistical review: Yes, and I have assessed the statistics in my report.
Review for 10.1186/1471-230X-13-52 (2013)

Reviewer's report
Title:Laxative effects of Salecan on loperamide-induced constipation in mice
Version: 2Date:7 December 2012
Reviewer: Juei-Tang Cheng
Reviewer's report:
Major Compulsory Revisions:
It shall be identified that Salecan is also effective on another animal model
showing constipation. Then, the conclusion will be reliable.
Minor Essential Revisions:
1. The source of Salecan is not clear. It is not a way to show according to
previous method only.
2. In reply of last comments, authors agreed that loperamide absorption is
possible to modify by Salecan. But this point was not included in this revision.
3. Formation of SCFAs is speculative only. But authors focused it too much.
Level of interest: An article whose findings are important to those with closely
related research interests
Quality of written English: Needs some language corrections before being
published
Statistical review: No, the manuscript does not need to be seen by a
statistician.
Declaration of competing interests:
I declare that I have no competing interests.
Review for 10.1186/1471-230X-13-52 (2013)

Reviewer's report
Title:Laxative effects of Salecan on loperamide-induced constipation in mice
Version: 2Date:27 December 2012
Reviewer: fenghong huang
Reviewer's report:
This piece of work was previously submitted to the journal for consideration. I
was one of the original reviewers.
Major Compulsory Revisions
The authors have failed to address many of the major issues with the first
submission highlighted by both reviewers in their second submission. In their
response to these comments, the authors have given appropriate rationale, yet
failed to highlight these in the second draft of the manuscript.
1. The authors can not explain clearly the rationale for measuring gastric
emptying in this study. If there is no direct relationship between gastric emptying
and constipation, the test of gastric emptying is redundant, as the purpose of the
study is to assess constipation and not intestinal transit.
2. This study tries to assess the effect of salecan on constipation, why did the
authors test some parameters in normal mice.
3. There are lots of statements about short chain fatty acids in section of
discussion. Soluble fiber can produce short chain fatty acids in colon. The
authors should provide evident about salecan and the producing of short chain
fatty acids.
4. In previous review, I have asked the authors to state whether the mice were
treated before the experiment. Feeding interfere all test in this study, so fast is
necessary for this study. But the authors’ answer is disappointing.
Level of interest: An article of limited interest
Quality of written English: Needs some language corrections before being
published
Statistical review: No, the manuscript does not need to be seen by a
statistician.
Declaration of competing interests:
I declare that I have no competing interests
Review for 10.1186/1471-230X-13-52 (2013)

Reviewer's report
Title:Laxative effects of Salecan on normal and two models of experimental
constipated mice
Version: 4Date:30 January 2013
Reviewer: Juei-Tang Cheng
Reviewer's report:
This submission has been revised according to comments.
Level of interest: An article whose findings are important to those with closely
related research interests
Quality of written English: Acceptable
Statistical review: No, the manuscript does not need to be seen by a
statistician.
Declaration of competing interests:
I declare that I have no competing interests.
Review for 10.1186/1471-230X-13-52 (2013)

Reviewer's report
Title:Laxative effects of Salecan on normal and two models of experimental
constipated mice
Version: 4Date:6 February 2013
Reviewer: fenghong huang
Reviewer's report:
Major Compulsory Revisions
1. The authors still don’t state whether the animals were fasted in fecal
parameters measurements in normal mice. Why were the animals given food
before the fecal parameters measurements in two types of constipation model
mice? Please provide the related references. If the animals were fasted in these
studies, how can the authors make sure that the feces collected within 8 h were
produced during the experimental period?
2. It is meaningless to state the effects of short chain fatty acids if the authors
can’t provide evidences that salecan can produce short chain fatty acids.
Level of interest: An article of limited interest
Quality of written English: Needs some language corrections before being
published
Statistical review: No, the manuscript does not need to be seen by a
statistician.
Declaration of competing interests:
I declare that I have no competing interests
Review for 10.1186/1471-230X-13-52 (2013)

Reviewer's report
Title:Laxative effects of Salecan on normal and two models of experimental
constipated mice
Version: 5Date:28 February 2013
Reviewer: fenghong huang
Reviewer's report:
The authors have responded to my concerns.
Level of interest: An article whose findings are important to those with closely
related research interests
Quality of written English: Acceptable
Statistical review: No, the manuscript does not need to be seen by a
statistician.
Declaration of competing interests:
I declare that I have no competing interests
Review for 10.1186/1471-230X-13-50 (2013)

Reviewer's report
Title:Autoantibodies Directed Against a Novel Cytoplasmic Compartment (Rods
and Rings) in Hepatitis C Virus Infection
Version: 1Date:20 November 2012
Reviewer: Yehuda Shoenfeld
Reviewer's report:
This is an excellent paper, novel data diagnostic important.
Minor: Replace Ref. 4 with one modern.
Level of interest: An article of importance in its field
Quality of written English: Acceptable
Statistical review: No, the manuscript does not need to be seen by a
statistician.
Declaration of competing interests:
I declare that I have no competing interests
Review for 10.1186/1471-230X-13-50 (2013)

Reviewer's report
Title:Clinical Associations and Potential Novel Antigenic Targets of
Autoantibodies Directed Against Rods and Rings in Chronic Hepatitis C Infection
Version: 2Date:7 February 2013
Reviewer: Carlo Selmi
Reviewer's report:
The authors have answered the major and minor points sufficiently well to allow
the manuscript publication. We still have identified minor essential revisions
(such as misspelling of some acronyms and grammar errors), so we suggest the
authors to revise and correct them.
Level of interest: An article of importance in its field
Quality of written English: Needs some language corrections before being
published
Statistical review: No, the manuscript does not need to be seen by a
statistician.
Declaration of competing interests:
'I declare that I have no competing interests'
Review for 10.1186/1471-230X-13-50 (2013)

Reviewer's report
Title:Clinical Associations and Potential Novel Antigenic Targets of
Autoantibodies Directed Against Rods and Rings in Chronic Hepatitis C Infection
Version: 2Date:28 February 2013
Reviewer: Yehuda Shoenfeld
Reviewer's report:
This is an excellent paper, novel data diagnostic important.
Well corrected.
Accept.
Level of interest: An article of importance in its field
Quality of written English: Acceptable
Statistical review: No, the manuscript does not need to be seen by a
statistician.
Declaration of competing interests:
'I declare that I have no competing interests'
Review for 10.1186/1471-230X-13-51 (2013)

Reviewer's report
Title:Meta-analysis: preoperative transcatheter arterial chemoembolization does
not improve prognosis of patients with resectable hepatocellular carcinoma
Version: 1Date:22 October 2012
Reviewer: Fabio Farinati
Reviewer's report:
This paper addresses the issue of neo-adjuvant TACe in patients with resectable
HCC. The matanalysis carried out appears to be sound from the methodological
point of view and the problem of including non randomized studies in the
matanalysis itself correctly evaluated. The paper does not need substantial
modifications and requires only editing by a mother-language reviewer.
Level of interest: An article of importance in its field
Quality of written English: Needs some language corrections before being
published
Statistical review: No, the manuscript does not need to be seen by a
statistician.
Review for 10.1186/1471-230X-13-51 (2013)

Reviewer's report
Title:Meta-analysis: preoperative transcatheter arterial chemoembolization does
not improve prognosis of patients with resectable hepatocellular carcinoma
Version: 1Date:11 January 2013
Reviewer: David Morris
Reviewer's report:
This is an important and useful meta analysis of TACE prior to liver resection for
HCC
Level of interest: An article of outstanding merit and interest in its field
Quality of written English: Acceptable
Statistical review: No, the manuscript does not need to be seen by a
statistician.
Declaration of competing interests:
No competing interests
Review for 10.1186/1471-230X-13-51 (2013)

Reviewer's report
Title:Meta-analysis: preoperative transcatheter arterial chemoembolization does
not improve prognosis of patients with resectable hepatocellular carcinoma
Version: 1Date:13 January 2013
Reviewer: Susumu Eguchi
Reviewer's report:
This study is sufficiently interesting that includes information from 21 studies
(3210 participants) for assessment the role of preoperative TACE for HCC. Also
opinions and conclusions of many authors are still controversial, but as we can
see results of this meta-analysis, there are no significantly differences in
statistical data with TACE+ and TACE-. These kinds of meta-analyses are
important for systematic review procedure and will make us looking for more
standardized methods of reducing recurrence and improve prognosis for
resectable HCC.
Major concerns
1.We have to ensure statistical validity of the study by statistical specialist.
2.Also the type of TACE should be sub-analyzed, such as whole liver TACE
so-called chemolipiodolization ot local TACE alone.
3.The information of background liver should be provided. Because the
recurrence pattern of HCC includes two distinct types, 1. Multicentric occurrence,
2. Intrahepatic metastasis from main tumor. TACE may reduce type 2 recurrence
but type 1 since type 1 recurrence occurs chronically in inflamed liver.
Minor concerns
1.The font of the letters was deranged in P5. It should be corrected.
2.Tables should be compact and written within one page otherwise it was difficult
to read them.
Level of interest: An article whose findings are important to those with closely
related research interests
Quality of written English: Needs some language corrections before being
published
Statistical review: Yes, but I do not feel adequately qualified to assess the
statistics.
Review for 10.1186/1471-230X-13-51 (2013)

Reviewer's report
Title:Meta-analysis: preoperative transcatheter arterial chemoembolization does
not improve prognosis of patients with resectable hepatocellular carcinoma
Version: 1Date:15 February 2013
Reviewer: Piero Luigi Almasio
Reviewer's report:
I have no major comments about the paper; the only concern is related to the
countries of origin of the analyzed studies. Apart only three form Europe, all the
others come from Asia. This aspect should be commented by the authors in
terms of generalizability of the results.
Level of interest: An article whose findings are important to those with closely
related research interests
Quality of written English: Needs some language corrections before being
published
Statistical review: Yes, but I do not feel adequately qualified to assess the
statistics.
Review for 10.1186/1471-230X-13-48 (2013)

Reviewer's report
Title:The effect of general anesthesia on gastric myoelectric activity in
experimental pigs
Version: 1Date:5 December 2012
Reviewer: Chris Mulder
Reviewer's report:
Page 2
Abstract:
Conlusion: “i.v. thiopental seems to be the most appropriate”: My question is for
what? Your conclusion now is unclear for the majority of readers.
Page 3
Abstract:
You introduction gives better answers for what to conclude in conclusion section
of the abstract!
Page 9
“Thus they can be used safely for preclinical studies using EGG in experimental
pigs”
• You must state: preclinical studies “with drugs” or with what
• Overall nice study: should be accepted with more clear message at the end.
Level of interest: An article of importance in its field
Quality of written English: Needs some language corrections before being
published
Statistical review: No, the manuscript does not need to be seen by a
statistician.
Review for 10.1186/1471-230X-13-48 (2013)

Reviewer's report
Title:The effect of general anesthesia on gastric myoelectric activity in
experimental pigs
Version: 1Date:16 December 2012
Reviewer: Andre Van Gossum
Reviewer's report:
The authors report the effect of 4 anesthetic drugs on gastric myolectric activity in
animal
The methodology is good
1 could you explain or speculate on interaction between nitreux osier and
isoflurane?
2 you state in your conclusions that thiopental sers to be the best ; this is not
supported by the data
Level of interest: An article whose findings are important to those with closely
related research interests
Quality of written English: Acceptable
Statistical review: No, the manuscript does not need to be seen by a
statistician.
Declaration of competing interests:
I déclare that I have nô competing interests
Review for 10.1186/1471-230X-13-47 (2013)

Reviewer's report
Title:Medical and surgical treatment of haemorrhoids and anal fissure in Crohn's
disease: a critical appraisal.
Version: 5Date:18 June 2012
Reviewer: Gabriele Böhm
Reviewer's report:
Minor Essential Revisions:
Please, improve the language of the paper.
Add patients' numbers to table 1 and 2 (e.g. n=17 for table 2)
Level of interest: An article of importance in its field
Quality of written English: Needs some language corrections before being
published
Statistical review: No, the manuscript does not need to be seen by a
statistician.
Declaration of competing interests:
I declare that I have no competing interests.
Review for 10.1186/1471-230X-13-47 (2013)

Reviewer's report
Title:Medical and surgical treatment of haemorrhoids and anal fissure in Crohn's
disease: a critical appraisal.
Version: 5Date:15 July 2012
Reviewer: Rick Nelson
Reviewer's report:
I am afraid that my issues with this study remain unchanged. This is a case
series and as such, especially for such a complex condition, cannot assess
efficacy of any procedure for fissure or hemorrhoids. Yet the authors make quite
unequivocal therpeutic recommendations based upon this series. At most these
sort of data might generate hypotheses for further investigation in randomized
trials. But not recommended therapy.
Level of interest: An article of insufficient interest to warrant publication in a
scientific/medical journal
Quality of written English: Acceptable
Statistical review: No, the manuscript does not need to be seen by a
statistician.
Declaration of competing interests:
'I declare that I have no competing interests'
Review for 10.1186/1471-230X-13-47 (2013)

Reviewer's report
Title:Medical and surgical treatment of haemorrhoids and anal fissure in Crohn's
disease: a critical appraisal.
Version: 5Date:15 August 2012
Reviewer: Richelle Jeannette Fyline Felt
Reviewer's report:
It is always interesting to read an article about anorectal problems. It is an
interesting subject and the treatment is contrioversial, therefore it makes the
article interesting. However, there are some serious remarks I would like to
make.
The article is too long and to worthy. The message of the authors is not very
complicated: it tels us what happpened to their patients, compare their results
with the literature and they try to come with an advice.
The literature does not need to be repeated both in backround and discussion.
The results section is far too long. I think the article could easily be brought back
to 60% of its size.
Specific comment:
Abstract:; no comment
Backround: last alinea: anal fistula? probably anal fissure?
Methods: abbrevation IRB should be mentioned.
Results: An important issue is that rubber band ligation was not considered a
conservative treatment. This makes a large difference in outcome. In many
contries beside the supportive measures likes fluid, fibers and mild laxatives this
is th eteratment of choice. Warm sit bath does not seem appropriate for
haemorroids: there are several studies thad advocate an anal cooler or ice packs
for hemoroids. This is an important issue and should also be mentioned in the
discussion why these choices were made. The effect of diosmin is very doubdfull
(DCR 1992). Lidocaine or zink ointment seems a good alternative.
In patients with an anal fisuure, a non posterior fistula should rase suspicion for a
non cryptoglandular ulcer? where there such ulcers in the non suspected Crohn
group?
Discussion: see remarks above. Important is the remark about the Rubber band
ligation: that is common practice in many countries. Minor spelling mistakes
Level of interest: An article whose findings are important to those with closely
related research interests
Quality of written English: Acceptable
Statistical review: No, the manuscript does not need to be seen by a
statistician.
Declaration of competing interests:
I declare that I have no competing interests
Review for 10.1186/1471-230X-13-47 (2013)

Reviewer's report
Title:Medical and surgical treatment of haemorrhoids and anal fissure in Crohn's
disease: a critical appraisal.
Version: 8Date:21 January 2013
Reviewer: Richelle Jeannette Fyline Felt
Reviewer's report:
The discrepancy in treatment between different countries should be stressed.
Phlebotonics are not used in Northern Europe ans USA.
This should be stressed somewhat more
Rubber band ligation is far more popular then suggested, This shoul dalso be
addressed.
Level of interest: An article whose findings are important to those with closely
related research interests
Quality of written English: Acceptable
Statistical review: No, the manuscript does not need to be seen by a
statistician.
Review for 10.1186/1471-230X-13-46 (2013)

Reviewer's report
Title:Pathogen-Specific Risk of Chronic Gastrointestinal Disorders Following
Bacterial Causes of Foodborne Illness
Version: 1Date:19 December 2012
Reviewer: James L Smith
Reviewer's report:
The manuscript was interesting and well-written. The data was clearly presented.
The manuscript considered the possible sequelae resulting from intestinal
infections due to Salmonella, Campylobacter, Shigella, and Yersinia
enterocolitica. While dealing with young military personnel, the data is useful in
evaluating potential sequelae that result from foodborne infections.
My minor criticisms are listed below:
1. Bacterial names, both genus and species, should be in italics in the abstract,
the text, the references, tables, and graphs
2. Page 3, line 15 shares # share
3. Reference 6---cap U and S; lower case M for military
4. Reference 7---volume # is 106; pages 130-138; date 2011
I do have a major criticism:
You should have dates for the references; the dates are miss in most of them
Level of interest: An article of outstanding merit and interest in its field
Quality of written English: Acceptable
Statistical review: Yes, and I have assessed the statistics in my report.
Declaration of competing interests:
I declare that I have no competing interests.
Review for 10.1186/1471-230X-13-46 (2013)

Reviewer's report
Title:Pathogen-Specific Risk of Chronic Gastrointestinal Disorders Following
Bacterial Causes of Foodborne Illness
Version: 1Date:21 January 2013
Reviewer: Morten Helms
Reviewer's report:
Please see the uploaded comments
Level of interest: An article of importance in its field
Quality of written English: Acceptable
Statistical review: No, the manuscript does not need to be seen by a
statistician.
Declaration of competing interests:
I declare that I have no competing interests
Review for 10.1186/1471-230X-13-46 (2013)

Reviewer's report
Title:Pathogen-Specific Risk of Chronic Gastrointestinal Disorders Following
Bacterial Causes of Foodborne Illness
Version: 2Date:19 February 2013
Reviewer: James L Smith
Reviewer's report:
I noted two changes that need to be made in the reference section:
reference #34---capital G for gastroenterological and capital D for disorders
referencxe # 45---Int J Food Microbiol. 2012 156: 231-238.
Level of interest: An article of outstanding merit and interest in its field
Quality of written English: Acceptable
Statistical review: Yes, and I have assessed the statistics in my report.
Review for 10.1186/1471-230X-13-46 (2013)

Reviewer's report
Title:Pathogen-Specific Risk of Chronic Gastrointestinal Disorders Following
Bacterial Causes of Foodborne Illness
Version: 2Date:25 February 2013
Reviewer: Morten Helms
Reviewer's report:
The revised manuscript is fine and I have no further remarks or comments
Level of interest: An article of outstanding merit and interest in its field
Quality of written English: Acceptable
Statistical review: Yes, and I have assessed the statistics in my report.
Declaration of competing interests:
I declare that I have no competing interests
Review for 10.1186/1471-230X-13-45 (2013)

Reviewer's report
Title:Effectiveness of a probiotic 'functional food' in the management of irritable
bowel syndrome: A randomized controlled trial
Version: 1Date:6 November 2012
Reviewer: Filippo Cremonini
Reviewer's report:
Roberts and colleagues report the results of a 4-week multi-center RCT of
probiotic-supplemented daily yoghurt versus yoghurt alone in 179 patients with
IBS classified by Rome III criteria. The strains used were B.lactis CNCM I-2494,
S.termophilus and L.bulgaricus. The Authors report essentially no association of
symptom improvement according to treatment groups. This study attests to an
effort of transparency in submitting for publication negative results in a field which
is affected by publication bias.
I have the following comments
-The attrition rate in the run-in phase ended up limiting the sample size to the
point that this study might actually be underpowered.
-The use of a ‘base’ product that contains some lactose is not ideal when dealing
with a patient population in which diarrhea and/or underlying greater prevalence
of lactose intolerance are present -The recruitment of patients with all bowel habit
sub-categories further impacts the limitations in power and the interpretation of
data. However, this is common to most probiotic studies in IBS -Consequently to
the previous point, the use of global improvement as primary endpoint is not the
most desirable to interpret data, but the only one applicable given the ‘mixed bag’
population. Please explain why the primary endpoint was week 4 rather than end
or treatment -Has fecal recovery of the product administered been tested before?
And resistance to acid and bile?
-Overall, I do not fully agree that these results are in variance with most of the
literature. A careful assessment of results from most probiotic trials in IBS would
support marginal efficacy at best, despite the positive estimates of pooled effects
from meta-analyses combining several smaller studies with significant
heterogeneity
Review for 10.1186/1471-230X-13-45 (2013)

Reviewer's report
Title:Effectiveness of a probiotic 'functional food' in the management of irritable
bowel syndrome: A randomized controlled trial
Version: 1Date:18 January 2013
Reviewer: Yuri Saito
Reviewer's report:
Major Compulsory Revisions:
None.
Minor Essential Revisions:
1. The abstract should mention that this study was limited to patients with IBS-C
and IBS-M.
2. Discussion. I do think the high response rate among the control group (53% at
4 weeks, 68% at 8 weeks) bears further discussion. Did you look to see if there
was a differential response between the IBS-C and IBS-M patients? Or perhaps
response was determined by symptom severity?
3. Table 2. “Male” reads like a “Mean (sd)”. Does 15 refer to actual number (n) or
percent (%)?
4. Table 3. If true, I would advise making it clear in the heading that this is based
on ITT analysis.
Discretionary Revisions:
1. Participation bias. With low initial participation rates and high drop out, I would
recommend including some information on those who chose not to participate
and those who dropped out.
2. Exclusion criteria. The paper states “General practitioners applied discretion to
prevent contact with patients considered inappropriate for contact or inclusion.”
–Could you provide specific examples? For example, mental health conditions,
etc.
Level of interest: An article of importance in its field
Quality of written English: Acceptable
Statistical review: No, the manuscript does not need to be seen by a
statistician.
Declaration of competing interests:
I have no conflicts of interest.