Review for 10.1186/s12876-020-01537-z (2020)

Reviewer’s report
Title: 
Gastrointestinal complications are associated with a poor outcome in non-
critically ill pneumonia patients
Version: 
0 
Date: 
16 Aug 2020
Reviewer's report:
Dr. Huang et al. planned to conduct a retrospective study, aiming to observe the
incidence of GI complications in non-critical pneumonia patients and evaluate
the association between the GI complications and outcomes. Currently, little is
known about the effects of GI complications and clinical outcomes on non-
critically ill patients; the novelty of this study is sufficient. However, it is limited
by its retrospective design. Below are my comments.
1. Because this is a retrospective study, all GI complications, including bowel
dilatation, diarrhea, ileus, and GI bleeding, were recorded by the medical chart,
the missing and/or uncertain data must be leading underestimate.
2. We believed the more complications attached, the poor outcomes developed.
However, the GI complications are associated with the mortality, the etiology
might be ARDS, septic shock, prolong antibiotics treatment etc, which are the
main causes induced the mortality. Authors should focus on these vital events or
complications, not only on the GI complications.
3. Another important issue is the GI complications attached firstly or clinical
condition downhill firstly. If the GI complications attached firstly and then
clinical condition became downhill, the results of the present study is very
useful. Therefore, the authors should address this more. 
4. In conclusion, authors concluded that the incidence of GI complications is not
high (17%). How do you make this conclusion without the control group?
5. If authors can provide more baseline data, including CBC/DC, NLR, albumin,
renal function, CRP levels, the readers can get easy to distinguish the differences
between the two groups, and this study will be more comprehensive. 
Publons Reviewer Recognition
. Springer Nature can send verification of this
review directly to Publons (a subsidiary of Clarivate Analytics). If you would
like to take advantage of this service, please click on the “Yes” option below.
Your name, email address, title of the reviewed manuscript, name of the journal,
and date of your review submission (the “Review Data”) will then be transmitted
to Publons upon publication of the manuscript. If you have already registered at
Publons, they will notify you of the receipt of this review and update your profile
as per your settings and their policy. If you are not registered with Publons, you
will receive an email from them asking you to register in order for them to be
able to recognize your review on your new profile page. Publons may use the
Review Data to generate derivative metadata for the benefit of Publons and you
as a reviewer, carefully considering the sensitivity of such information. For
example, Publons may verify your record as a reviewer by updating your profile
published on its webservice if you have registered for such service or help
editors to identify candidate reviewers. Please find the details of processing in
Publons’ privacy policy 
https://publons.com/about/terms
No
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.
I declare that I have no competing interests.
Reviewer Publication Consent.
 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
) if this manuscript is accepted for
publication. Any comments that I do not wish to be included in the published
report have been included as confidential comments to the editor, which will not
be published.
If you are not happy for us to publish this report, please contact the editorial
office before completing the review.
If you wish, you can include your name in your published report. Please note
you must decide whether to include your name at the start of the process and
confirm this decision whenever prompted. If you change your decision later, we
will not be able to publish your name.
I agree to the terms of the CC-BY 4.0 license; please 
do not
 publish my name
with my report. (default)
Is the study design appropriate to answer the research question (including the use
of appropriate controls), and are the conclusions supported by the evidence
presented?
No
Are the methods sufficiently described to allow the study to be repeated?
No
Is the use of statistics and treatment of uncertainties appropriate?
No
Is the presentation of the work clear?
Yes
Are the images in this manuscript (including electrophoretic gels and blots) free
from apparent manipulation?
Yes