Review for 10.1186/s12876-020-01509-3 (2020)

Reviewer’s report
Title: 
Non-invasive predictors of prognosis of Asian patients with
histopathologically-confirmed lean nonalcoholic fatty liver disease
Version: 
0 
Date: 
27 Sep 2020
Reviewer's report:
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Comments to authors
It is an interesting and well written study but with some important limitations
1. it would be better to change the title of the manuscript. "Non-invasive
predictors of prognosis of Asian patients with histopathologically-confirmed lean
nonalcoholic fatty liver disease" would be a more appropriate title, as you
studied only Asian patients and not a mixed population. We know that there are
differences between Asian and Caucasian patients with NAFLD due to the
different genetic profile. For that reason the results could probably be different in
a Caucasian population. 
2. Some patients with lean NAFLD had liver cancer before their inclusion in the
study. Why? Did they have cirrhosis before their enrollment? Please explain as
the previous status of the patients may change the prognosis
3. In the case of mortality, you analyzed the data from 132 lean NAFLD patients.
As the total number of lean NAFLD patients was 170, the number of 38 lost
patients is very big. This may had a great effect on your results. Please provide
your opinion about 
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Is the study design appropriate to answer the research question (including the use
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