Review for 10.1186/s12876-019-0989-x (2019)

Reviewer’s report
Title: Serum D-dimer Levels at Admission for Prediction of Outcomes in Acute Pancreatitis
Version: 0 Date: 01 Apr 2019
Reviewer: K Sun
Reviewer's report:
Please include all comments for the authors in this box rather than uploading your report as an  
attachment. Please only upload as attachments annotated versions of manuscripts, graphs, supporting  
materials or other aspects of your report which cannot be included in a text format.
Please overwrite this text when adding your comments to the authors.
This clinical research work by Drs. Wan et al., investigated the effects of serum D-dimer level as an  
indicator for the early prediction of acute pancreatitis (AP) outcome upon admission. They analyzed  
3451  clinical  patients  for  their  D-dimer  level  and  their  correlation  with  various  stages  of  acute  
pancreatitis. The authors concluded that measurement of D-dimer levels may be useful in the early risk  
stratification of AP and predication of prognosis, because this is an important clinical topic, this work is  
therefore interesting with merit.  The manuscript is generally well written but with many grammatical  
typos, and appears in its early version of submission, due mostly to some of the statements need to be  
amended and revision.  Authors are encouraged to revise and make the manuscript logically sound and  
more attractive.
Minor points:
1.There are some minor typos in the text and one sentence in the result part is only half finished,  
which deserve correction.
2.Two major markers for pancreatitis are serum lipase and amylase, which were not mentioned or  
missing and were not analyzed in the study, it is not clear the rational why they were omitted for  
such tedious and important study, please explain and discuss.
3.There are mistakes in the reference part, such as ref. #10, which require correction, and the  
format appears different among references which deserve author's attention.
4.The overall quality of the work could be improved by adding more data, such as serum lipase  
and amylase, and in-depth analysis of these data between subgroups.
Are the methods appropriate and well described?
If not, please specify what is required in your comments to the authors.
Yes
Does the work include the necessary controls?
If not, please specify which controls are required in your comments to the authors.
Yes
Are the conclusions drawn adequately supported by the data shown?
If not, please explain in your comments to the authors.
Yes
Are you able to assess any statistics in the manuscript or would you recommend an additional  
statistical review?
If  an  additional  statistical  review  is  recommended,  please  specify  what  aspects  require  further  
assessment in your comments to the editors.
I recommend additional statistical review
Quality of written English
Please indicate the quality of language in the manuscript:
Needs some language corrections before being published
Declaration of competing interests
Please complete a declaration of competing interests, considering the following questions:
1. Have you in the past five years received reimbursements, fees, funding, or salary from an  
organisation  that  may  in  any  way  gain  or  lose  financially  from  the  publication  of  this  
manuscript, either now or in the future?
2. Do you hold any stocks or shares in an organisation that may in any way gain or lose financially  
from the publication of this manuscript, either now or in the future?
3. Do  you  hold  or are  you  currently applying  for  any patents  relating  to  the  content  of  the  
manuscript?
4. Have you received reimbursements, fees, funding, or salary from an organization that holds or  
has applied for patents relating to the content of the manuscript?
5. Do you have any other financial competing interests?
6. Do you have any non-financial competing interests in relation to this paper?
If you can answer no to all of the above, write 'I declare that I have no competing interests' below. If  
your reply is yes to any, please give details below.
This clinical research work by Drs. Wan et al., investigated the effects of serum D-dimer level as an  
indicator for the early prediction of acute pancreatitis (AP) outcome upon admission. They analyzed  
3451  clinical  patients  for  their  D-dimer  level  and  their  correlation  with  various  stages  of  acute  
pancreatitis. The authors concluded that measurement of D-dimer levels may be useful in the early risk  
stratification of AP and predication of prognosis, because this is an important clinical topic, this work is  
therefore interesting with merit. The manuscript is generally well written but with many grammatical  
typos, and appears in its early version of submission, due mostly to some of the statements need to be  
amended and revision. Authors are encouraged to revise and make the manuscript logically sound and  
more attractive.Minor points:1.There are some minor typos in the text and one sentence in the result  
part is only half finished, which deserve correction.2.Two major markers for pancreatitis are serum  
lipase and amylase, which were not mentioned or missing and were not analyzed in the study, it is not  
clear the rational why they were omitted for such tedious and important study, please explain and  
discuss.3.There are mistakes in the reference part, such as ref. #10, which require correction, and the  
format appears different among references which deserve author ’s attention.4.The overall quality of the  
work could be improved by adding more data, such as serum lipase and amylase, and in-depth analysis  
of these data between subgroups.
I agree to the open peer review policy of the journal. I understand that my name will be included on my  
report to the authors and, if the manuscript is accepted for publication, my named report including any 
attachments I upload will be posted on the website along with the authors' responses. I agree for my 
report to be made available under an Open Access Creative Commons CC-BY license 
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ ). I understand that any comments which I do not wish to 
be included in my named report can be included as confidential comments to the editors, which will not  
be published.
I agree to the open peer review policy of the journal