JerMa88/BMC_Gastroenterology_Peer_Reviews huggingface dataset:
Review for 10.1186/1471-230X-10-100 (2010)

Reviewer's report
Title:Prevalence of primary biliary cirrhosis in adults referring hospital for annual
health check-up in Southern China
Version: 2Date:19 August 2010
Reviewer: Dimitrios Bogdanos
Reviewer's report:
The revised paper addresses satisfactorily the comments of the reviewers.
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 interest
Review for 10.1186/1471-230X-10-99 (2010)

Reviewer's report
Title:Pneumomediastinum as a complication of emphysematous cholecystitis:
Case report
Version: 1Date:1 July 2010
Reviewer: Fumihiko Miura
Reviewer's report:
This manuscript dscribes a rare case of phneumomediastinum as a complication
of emphysematous cholecystitis. Authors advocate that emphysematous
cholecystitis should be considered as a possible cause of pneumomediastinum.
Although this manuscript would appeal to many readers, there are some
problems.
Major Compulsory Revisions:
1. A title of this manuscript should be changed into “Peumomediastinum
occurring after cholecystectomy for emphysematous cholecystitis: Case report”.
2. Authors should mention the influence of open cholecystectomy on occurrence
of pheumomediasitinum.
3. Authors also described laparotomy findings in detail.
Minor Essential Revisions:
1. Page 4, line 7, “isquemic” is not correct.
2. Figure legend is poor.
3. Authors should present a photograph demonstrating subcutaneous necrosis, if
possible.
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.
Review for 10.1186/1471-230X-10-99 (2010)

Reviewer's report
Title:Pneumomediastinum as a complication of emphysematous cholecystitis:
Case report
Version: 1Date:5 July 2010
Reviewer: Michael Pitiakoudis
Reviewer's report:
I found it a very interesting case report , scientifically justified and its writing is
acceptable and suitable for a scientific, peer-reviewed journal.
Additionally, considering the rarity of this case report, I suggest the publication of
the article without revisions.
Review for 10.1186/1471-230X-10-99 (2010)

Reviewer's report
Title:Pneumomediastinum as a complication of emphysematous cholecystitis:
Case report
Version: 1Date:21 July 2010
Reviewer: Massimiliano Tuveri
Reviewer's report:
1. Major Compulsory Revisions
None
2. Minor Essential Revisions
None
3. Discretionary Revisions
3.1. please describe the sites where skin incision were made
3.2. if the fascia was not involved in the process why did you open it? the risk to
locally spread the infection is very high in this way. Please specify more clearly
the procedure used in the second procedure.
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-10-98 (2010)

Reviewer's report
Title:A simple index of lipid overaccumulation is a good marker of liver steatosis
Version: 2Date:30 June 2010
Reviewer: Giovanni Targher
Reviewer's report:
In this cross-sectional study, Dr. Bedogni and colleagues examined the ability of
the lipid accumulation product (LAP) to identify hepatic steatosis in a subset of
588 adult individuals participating in the Dionysos project. The same study
population was previously used to develop the fatty liver index (FLI).
The authors found that LAP was a reasonably accurate index to recognizing
individuals with ultrasound-diagnosed hepatic steatosis.
Major comments
1. The manuscript is not always easy to read and the direct relevance of these
data to care or prevention of hepatic steatosis are not completely clear. A liver
ultrasound examination is essential to identify hepatic steatosis in routine clinical
practice and the LAP index simply reflects the presence of the metabolic
syndrome, which is a condition closely associated with hepatic steatosis.
2. The authors should show data comparing the ability of LAP and FLI to identify
hepatic steatosis.
3. Table 1. Please, include gender distribution, blood pressure, HDL-cholesterol
and the frequency of the ATP III-defined metabolic syndrome.
Level of interest: An article of limited interest
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-10-98 (2010)

Reviewer's report
Title:A simple index of lipid overaccumulation is a good marker of liver steatosis
Version: 2Date:9 July 2010
Reviewer: Elisabetta E Bugianesi
Reviewer's report:
The manuscript by Bedogni et al is aimed at evaluating the effectiveness of LAP
(lipid accumulation product), an index of cardiometabolic risk factors, in
predicting liver steatosis.
The rationale of the study is based on the observation that the variables upon
which LAP is built (waist circumference and triglycerides levels) are also shared
by FLI, a validated index of fatty liver. LAP has been calculated in 588
participants of the Dionysos study, 305 cases with suspected liver disease (SLD)
and 283 age and sex-matched controls, and models have been built to predict
absence/intermediate/severe liver steatosis according to US.
The authors conclude that a model consisting of lnLAP and sex is able to detect
the presence and the severity of steatosis.
The current wide search of indices to predict fatty liver is motivated by the lack of
a serum marker that can easily identify it based on readily available
clinical/anthropometric measures.
This study further adds to this relevant topic, with the peculiar observation that
markers of cardiometabolic risk and of fatty liver are based on similar
parameters, thus supporting the hypothesis that steatosis and cardiovascular risk
share a common pathway.
Major comments:
1. The rationale of the study is mainly supported by the observation of coincident
parameters between FLIP and LAP, but it should be more clearly motivated in
terms of pathophysiological mechanisms of fatty liver and related metabolic
abnormalities. Waist circumference per se is able to identify a large percentage
of fatty liver, since both hepatic and visceral fat belong to the same “axis” of
central obesity
2. Limitations are clearly stated by the authors, however a cost-effectiveness
analysis of this index vs the US screening would be of interest.
3. Background, Page 6, lines 11-12: what do the authors mean by “because the
simple dichotomization of liver steatosis into fatty liver…”?
4. Why is dietary assessment mentioned? Was it used just for ethanol
consumption?
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-10-98 (2010)

Reviewer's report
Title:A simple index of lipid overaccumulation is a good marker of liver steatosis
Version: 2Date:13 July 2010
Reviewer: luigi adinolfi
Reviewer's report:
General comments
The authors performed this study to evaluated the ability of LAP index to identify
liver steatosis. They used the same study population from Northen Italian town
where FLI was developed. 588 subjects were included in the study. Liver
steatosis was evaluated by ultrasonography. A complicated statistical analysis
was used. In particular, an ordinal proportional-odds logistic regression model.
The OR of levels of different steatosis considered increased with the increasing
values of lnLAP. The authors conclusion was that LAP is an accurate approach
to individuate subjects with steatosis, expecially among male.
The study is of interest and may have some clinical application. However, some
points should be better clarify and the limitation should be better underlined.
Major Compulsory Revisions:
- LAP was originally developed as a marker of cardiometabolic risk. The authors
should better explain why they hypothesized that LAP could also individuate
subjects with steatosis and if they believed that LAP index is better/simpler than
FLI in individuate steatotic patients
- The data presented seem to indicate that LAP individuate very well subjects
with severe steatosis but do not discriminate between subjects with intermediate
steatosis and normal subjects. This point should be better clarify, also in
consideration of the low sensitivity of ultrasonographic in detecting liver steatosis
below 30%.
- The authors should clarify, in their experience, what means intermediate and
severe steatosis and if the two conditions are associated at different clinical
meaning.
Discretional revisions
- The authors should compared the accuracy of LAP and of FLI in predicting
ultrasonographic liver steatosis to individuate the best test to use in clinical
practice/epidemiologic studies.
- The sensitivity and specificity of LAP to individuate intermediate and severe
steatosis should be performed. A ROC analysis should be done. Cut off of LAP
to discriminate subjects with and without steatosis shoud be calculated
Level of interest: An article of importance in its field
Quality of written English: Acceptable
Statistical review: Yes, but I do not feel adequately qualified to assess the
statistics.
Review for 10.1186/1471-230X-10-98 (2010)

Reviewer's report
Title:A simple index of lipid overaccumulation is a good marker of liver steatosis
Version: 3Date:2 August 2010
Reviewer: Giovanni Targher
Reviewer's report:
All of my previous comments have been adequately addressed. No further
comments. Many thanks.
Level of interest: An article of limited interest
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-10-98 (2010)

Reviewer's report
Title:A simple index of lipid overaccumulation is a good marker of liver steatosis
Version: 3Date:5 August 2010
Reviewer: Elisabetta E Bugianesi
Reviewer's report:
The manuscript is suitable 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-10-98 (2010)

Reviewer's report
Title:A simple index of lipid overaccumulation is a good marker of liver steatosis
Version: 3Date:19 August 2010
Reviewer: luigi adinolfi
Reviewer's report:
I have looked to the response of the authors and to the revised manuscript. The
authors have satisfactory answered to all my criticisms. The new version of the
paper is improved and can be accepted for publication.
Review for 10.1186/1471-230X-10-97 (2010)

Reviewer's report
Title:Acetic acid - indigo carmine chromoendoscopy for delineating early gastric
cancers: its usefulness according to the histologic type
Version: 1Date:12 December 2009
Reviewer: Ralf Jakobs
Reviewer's report:
Major compulsory revisisons: none
Minor essentials revision:
This is a well-defined report on the use of a special technique of
chromoendoscopy combininy acetic acid and indigocarmine for the delineation of
early gastric cancers.
Methods used are appropriate but authors should more clarify the technical
details (e.g., concentration of inidigo carmine solution, volume of solution used
for chromoendoscopy; type of catheter).
Data seem to be valid and sound and the manuscript is adhering to relevant
standards for reporting.
The discussion is focused on chromoendoscopy. In the past two years all of the
major endoscopy manufacturers have brought new “virtual “ techniques (e.g.,
NBI, FICE, I-SCAN) on the market and all are equipped with high resolution
video techniques like HDTV-standard. Author should therefore discuss their
results in comparison to the meanwhile published reports comparing
chromoendoscopy with virtual techniques.
Finally, the authors clearly acknowlegdge any work upon which they are building,
the abstract is addressing the content of the study and the writing is acceptable.
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-10-97 (2010)

Reviewer's report
Title:Acetic acid-indigo carmine chromoendoscopy for delineating early gastric
cancers: its usefulness according to histological type
Version: 2Date:15 March 2010
Reviewer: Ralf Jakobs
Reviewer's report:
The revised version of the manuscript is very acceptable for publication.
The "materials and methods" section as well as the "discussion" part have been
improved markedly.
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-10-96 (2010)

Reviewer's report
Title:Fucoidan present in brown algae induces apoptosis of HT-29 human colon
cancer cells
Version: 1Date:28 May 2010
Reviewer: Arun Rishi
Reviewer's report:
This manuscript by kim et al investigates apoptotic effects and mechanisms of an
algal derivative Fucoidan in colon cancer cells. Fucoidan has been previously
shown to be active against a number of pathologies and was also found to
induce anti-tumor effects in a variety of cancer cell types. In the current study, the
authors investigate growth inhibition of HT-29 colon cancer cells by this agent. In
reference to the colon cancer model however this agent was previously shown to
inhibit growth of HCT-116 colon cancer cells albeit at much higher doses than
that used in current study. Although, most of the experiments are well controlled
and data are clearly interpreted, the rationale for conducting the in vitro studies
utilizing a different cell line nonetheless is modest. The manuscript in general is
well written albeit could benefit from further editing. The data however are good
quality with appropriate statistical analyses where applicable. The other
interesting feature of these studies is lack of toxicity of this compound in FHC
human normal colon epithelial cells. The experimental analyses are well detailed
and systematic in elucidating activation of apoptotic signalling pathways by this
agent. Specifically, the authors measure the end-points of cell growth inhibition
and apoptosis by this agent in a dose and time-dependent manner in figures 1
and 2. In the subsequent figures, the authors focus on determining expression
and/or activation of a range of cellular apoptosis transducing factors including
caspases, pro-, and anti-apoptotic proteins that are well known to transduce the
extrinsic as well as intrinsic apoptosis pathways. The conclusions are well
supported by the data presented in various figures. A minor concern is an
apparent discrepancy in the data in figures 1A and 2C. In figure 1A, treatment
with 20 microgram per ml dose of fucoidan results in 25% viable cells while in
figure 2C the histogram indicates 62% live cells following similar treatment.
Authors need to clarify this discrepancy in the results section.
Overall, the studies are generally well presented with appropriate controls, and
the data by and large support the conclusions.
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-10-96 (2010)

Reviewer's report
Title:Fucoidan present in brown algae induces apoptosis of HT-29 human colon
cancer cells
Version: 1Date:7 June 2010
Reviewer: Nancy Turner
Reviewer's report:
General comments:
This is a well-written paper that provides a thorough evaluation of apoptosis
induction in colon cancer cells by fucoidan. However, there are a few issues that
need to be resolved and discussed further by the authors.
Major compulsory revisions
1. The use of serum-deprivation medium in order to stabilize cells in the cell cycle
is completely understandable. However, the authors must describe why they
continued to use serum-deprivation medium during the treatment phase of the
experiment. This alone will severely limit cell growth and promote apoptosis. How
are you able to establish and compare the effect that fucoidan would have in
vivo, in a non-limiting condition, to the effects reported here?
2. Hopefully, the final figures will be of higher quality that those included for
review. As they are currently presented it is very hard to read the text and
numbers.
Minor essential revisions
1. The protein levels of survivin do not decrease in a dose-dependent manner (p
13, l 13-14).
2. According to the author’s citations, this isn’t the first paper documenting the
effect of fucoidan on colon cancer cell lines and newer references for in vivo
data, and there is information concerning its effects on colitis. As such, they need
to remove their assertion that it is the first throughout the paper.
3. What are the differences in the data shown in figure 2, panel C for living cells
and the data in figure 1?
Discretionary revisions
Specific comments:
Page Line
5 3 It is the second leading cause of cancer death when the data for both
genders are combined, which is what the sentence suggests the authors are
referring to.
5 11 I am not sure what the authors means by “reverse progression to invasive
cancer”.
9 8 You need to indicate the FBS was charcoal-stripped.
9 23 Instead of saying “as described above” throughout the paper, give us the
specifics of the treatment regimen for each purpose.
10 13 You need to indicate the concentration of fucoidan used, time of
administration, etc.
29 12 This is true, except for caspase 3, in which 1 is set at 5 µg/mL.
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-10-96 (2010)

Reviewer's report
Title:Fucoidan present in brown algae induces apoptosis of HT-29 human colon
cancer cells
Version: 1Date:8 June 2010
Reviewer: Hee-Kyoung Kang
Reviewer's report:
In this manuscript, authors describe the effect of fucoidan on the apoptosis
induction in HT-29 human colon cancer cells. However, following points should
be explained.
Minor Essential Revisions;
1. The present study seems to be similar to the previous report (Hyun et al.,
2009) except cell line. The differences and advanced points of your study
compared to the previous study need to be mentioned.
2. In Hyun’s study, fucoidan at 100 ug/mL induces the apoptosis of HCT-15,
whereas 5-20 ug/mL fucoidan can induce the apoptosis of HT-29 in this study.
HT-29 and HCT-15 are same human colorectalcarcinoma cells. In regard to
apoptosis induction, what can exhibit the concentration difference between the
two cells? Please comment that in the discussion
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-10-96 (2010)

Reviewer's report
Title:Fucoidan present in brown algae induces apoptosis of HT-29 human colon
cancer cells
Version: 1Date:15 June 2010
Reviewer: Suguru Fukahori
Reviewer's report:
This manuscript describes the anti-tumor effect of fucoidan via both the death
receptor-mediated and mitochondria-mediated apoptotic pathway in vitro using
HT-29 human colon cancer cells. This report is well written in the detail of
apoptotic pathway induced by fucoidan treatment and appears to be worthwhile
to be published in this journal, but need some corrections at several parts as
follows.
Major Compulsory Revisions
1.Materials
(p8, line3-4) The reagents employed in this study were purchased from the
indicated suppliers: fucoidan.
The author did not explain the details of fucoidan employed in this study, so
should explain how fucoidan is prepared from the seaweed and the details of
major components of fucoidan such as L-fucose and sulfate content if known as
the previous literature showed that the proportion of these components in the
fucoidan plays a great role in the anti-tumor effect.
2.Discussion
(p16, line21-22, p17, line6-9)
The author noted that fucoidan induced apoptosis in HT-29 cells at low
concentration, so should add descriptions how the mechanism of apoptosis in
this study differ from previous reports in terms of the components of fucoidan.
Discretionary Revisions
3.In results, all obtained data is from only HT-29 human colon cancer cells
except Cell culture and cell viability assay. To increase a reliability of remaining
studies’ data, the author should obtain the data from HFC human normal colon
epithelial cells, too if it is physically possible.
Minor Essential Revisions
4.Cell culture and cell viability assay
(p8, line10) …with various concentrations of fucoidan…………
Exact concentrations should be described.
5.(p8, line22) …with various concentrations of fucoidan…………
Same comment.
6.Flow cytometry measurement of mitochondrial membrane potential
(p10, line5) …with various concentrations of fucoidan…………
Same comment.
7.Western blot analysis
(p10, line13-14) We cultured the cells in 100mm dishes and administered
fucoidan to them, as described above.
Same comment.
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-10-96 (2010)

Reviewer's report
Title:Fucoidan present in brown algae induces apoptosis of HT-29 human colon
cancer cells
Version: 2Date:27 July 2010
Reviewer: Nancy Turner
Reviewer's report:
Major Compulsory
1. The title, abstract and introduction give the impression that this work was only
conducted in HT29 cells. However, now there are data from HCT116 cells, so
these should be modified accordingly.
Minor Essential
1. The y-axes in figure 2 should all be on the same scale to make it easier for the
reader to compare the results. Provide the numeric results in panel G, as they
occur for panels E and F.
2. In figure 5, is doesn't appear that the 5 µg/ml fucoidan level caused a
significant increase relative to the control - please check the statistics.
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-10-96 (2010)

Reviewer's report
Title:Fucoidan present in brown algae induces apoptosis of HT-29 human colon
cancer cells
Version: 2Date:4 August 2010
Reviewer: Suguru Fukahori
Reviewer's report:
The manuscript is well revised and all parts I noted have almost been resolved.
Therefore, I think the manuscript will be ready to be published in this journal.
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-10-95 (2010)

Reviewer's report
Title:The effect of Aloe ferox Mill. in the treatment of loperamide-induced
constipation in Wistar rats
Version: 1Date:2 March 2010
Reviewer: wenliang zhou
Reviewer's report:
The article titled “The effect of Aloe ferox Mill. in the treatment of
loperamide-induced constipation in Wistar rats” written by Olubunmi A Wintola et
al. presented that the Aloe Ferox extract has laxative effect on
loperamide-induced constipated rats, revealed the potential role of Aloe Ferox on
constipation therapy.
However, the paper is more like an "oral" presentation that makes it very difficult
to review. I believe that the spelling and grammar should be corrected, and
sentences should be refined. For example, 2nd paragraph of Introduction, line 3,
“surfer” should be “suffer”; The author need to re-write the entire manuscript.
The author chose the dosage of 50, 100 and 200 mg/kg body weight/day of A.
ferox extract, but there is no evidence shows why. Has there any
dose-dependent experiment been done? The most important thing is, though the
article present a lot of statistic data in Tables, it didn’t mentioned what data
analysis method has been used.
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, and I have assessed the statistics in my report.
Review for 10.1186/1471-230X-10-95 (2010)

Reviewer's report
Title:The effect of Aloe ferox Mill. in the treatment of loperamide-induced
constipation in Wistar rats
Version: 1Date:24 March 2010
Reviewer: Anwar Gilani
Reviewer's report:
Major Essential Revisions
1. 1st paragraph of the study is redundant and be removed. Ideally the number of
animals should have been at least 5 in each group
2. In “Method” section of the abstract, mention the dose of loperamide instead of
writing just loperamide.
3. It is necessary that authors must provide a short detail for all statistical
parameters used, in the methodology section of the manuscript. It would be
advisable to consult a statistician if possible. Statistics used in this study is not
clear. It is important to use appropriate statistics to show a dose-dependent
effect. In Figure 1 and Table 2, statistical symbols (b and c) were used to
compare with the symbol a, while no characteristics values have been assigned
to these symbolic representation, hence, no one can make a clue about whether
the effect is dose-dependent or not.
4. Senokot, which is used as positive control, is in fact a constipation relieving
drug, hence, the terminology used “constipation drug” be replaced with “laxative
drug throughout the text.
5. In Table 2, the authors want to observe the effect of treatment on constipation
model, while they compared the data with normal control, which is not
appropriate. Show a comparison of the treatment groups with constipation control
instead of normal control and also mention the statistical parameter used, and
the difference between b, c and d (symbols used for significance level).
Minor Essential Revisions
Revise bibliography and use only the first alphabet in capital letter while writing
the name of plant in italic format.
Throughout the manuscript either use “h” or “hrs” to represent hours but
consistently or as justified following the instruction from the journal.
Corrections
Page no. 2, Paragraph no. 1, line no. 3-4; replace “in the treatment of” with “was
studied
against” and also remove was investigated.
Page no. 3, Paragraph no. 2, line no. 3; replace surfer with suffer
Page no. 3, Paragraph no. 3, line no. 1; replace “chemotherapeutic agent” with
“chemical
drug”
Page no. 4, Paragraph no. 2, line no. 13; Is it a standard constipation drug or
standard
laxative drug ?
Page no. 5, Paragraph no. 1, line no. 1; replace “Pty” with “Pvt”
Page no. 5, Paragraph no. 1, line no. 1; replace “reagent” with “reagents”
Page no.7, Paragraph no 1. line no. 9; replace plant name in italic format
Page no.10, Paragraph no 1. line no. 9-10; Please reconsider the statement “ the
possible
mechanism of the extract in this process may be by
enhancing the absorption of fluid and increasing
the intestinal secretion.
In Figure and Table legends; add “the aqueous extract of ” before Aloe frox
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.
Declaration of competing interests:
I declare that I have no competing interests
Review for 10.1186/1471-230X-10-95 (2010)

Reviewer's report
Title:The effect of Aloe ferox Mill. in the treatment of loperamide-induced
constipation in Wistar rats
Version: 2Date:1 April 2010
Reviewer: Anwar Gilani
Reviewer's report:
I read the revised version of the article and I am satisfied with corrections made.
Review for 10.1186/1471-230X-10-94 (2010)

Reviewer's report
Title:A population-based survey of the epidemiology of symptom-defined
gastroesophageal reflux disease: the Systematic Investigation of Gastrointestinal
Diseases in China
Version: 2Date:4 April 2010
Reviewer: Khean-Lee Goh
Reviewer's report:
This study is a snapshot view of several cities (with a rural population?) of China.
Although it has a large sample size the overall figures does not necessarily
represent China...The data should rightly be interpreted city by city (as has been
done) rather than amalgamating them!.......what does it represent then?
The details of RDQ must be clarifed in this paper....what is meant by mild etc etc
and what is signifcant severity of symptoms and at least a general description on
how the scores are calcuated. It has to be stressed that the questionaire is
validated in Chinese. Methodology is not convincing enough to me!
Some explanation must be made on why rural population has higher GERD.
Need also to explain how 5 big cities have such a big rural population. A reader
from oustide China will be thoruoghly confused.
Level of interest: An article whose findings are important to those with closely
related research interests
Quality of written English: Acceptable
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-10-94 (2010)

Reviewer's report
Title:A population-based survey of the epidemiology of symptom-defined
gastroesophageal reflux disease: the Systematic Investigation of Gastrointestinal
Diseases in China
Version: 2Date:1 May 2010
Reviewer: Siavosh Nasseri-Moghaddam
Reviewer's report:
Dear editor
Thank you for sending me this manuscript for review. Overall the paper adds
good information and is the result of a time-consuming, difficult study. I believe it
deserves being published after some considerations. The following are my major
comments:
1) The different provinces in which the study has been performed need to be
explained in more detail including the followings (although some of the following
have been described in reference 9, but a brief summary as well as additional
information are needed in this report for clarification):
a. Population of each province and the proportions which live in rural and urban
areas.
b. Socio-economic status of each province and whether it is significantly different
between the provinces as well as in rural and urban areas.
c. Level of literacy in each area
d. Then the socio-economic status included in the analysis as one of the factors
which may probably affect GERD prevalence.
2) In the “Methodology” section, the authors have mentioned that they have done
a “regression analysis” (probably of the factors found to have association with
GERD). There is no notion of this analysis in the “results” section . Then in
table-4, there is a “multivariate OR” title. These need to be explained more in the
text, and the multivariate model described in more detail. In addition, the
univariate analysis results are better to be addressed.
3) “AR” has been reported to be more frequent than “HB” in other eastern
populations (Aliment Pharmacol Ther 2008; 28, 144–153). This can be pointed in
the “discussion” section as possible cultural and/or pathophysiologic differences
between the GERD seen in the east and the west.
4) The cut-off point for obesity has been chosen as 27.5 kg/m2 in this study.
Even at this cut-off level there seems to be a trend for more GERD prevalence
among those with a higher BMI. Had the analysis been repeated with a cut-off of
30 kg/m2, then a relation may have been found. In addition, the percentage of
population with a high BMI is rather low as compared to similar studies from
other parts of the world. This may affect the findings as well.
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-10-94 (2010)

Reviewer's report
Title:A population-based survey of the epidemiology of symptom-defined
gastroesophageal reflux disease: the Systematic Investigation of Gastrointestinal
Diseases in China
Version: 3Date:21 June 2010
Reviewer: Khean-Lee Goh
Reviewer's report:
The revision is fine.
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-10-94 (2010)

Reviewer's report
Title:A population-based survey of the epidemiology of symptom-defined
gastroesophageal reflux disease: the Systematic Investigation of Gastrointestinal
Diseases in China
Version: 3Date:22 July 2010
Reviewer: Siavosh Nasseri-Moghaddam
Reviewer's report:
I reviewed the revised manuscript, the appendices and the authors' reply. The
authors have adequately revised the manuscript and responded reasonably to all
the comments. Accordingly, I believe their manuscript is suitable for publication
now.
Review for 10.1186/1471-230X-10-93 (2010)

Reviewer's report
Title:Acute-on-chronic liver failure due to methimazole in a patient with
hyperthyroidism and trilogy of Fallot: case report
Version: 1Date:11 July 2010
Reviewer: Raúl J J Andrade
Reviewer's report:
This manuscript describes a case report of fatal liver failure associated with
methimazole in a patient with pre-existing liver disease presumably related to
hyperthyroidism and/or Fallot trilogy. The case is interesting and the paper is
well-written, and nicely discussed with useful information.
Specific comments
The background’s abstract is incompletely ended (missing words).
In the introduction the terms toxic hepatitis and cholestatic jaundice are little
informative. What do they mean?
In case’s description the authors state that a lymphocyte stimulation test for
methimazole was positive. Please, provide more details on how the test was
performed. Also more detailed information on the final outcome leading to death
should be provided.
The authors discuss thoroughly the potential implication of thyroidal and cardiac
patient’s condition as causes of pre-existing liver disease. However, they do not
discuss the fact that chronic liver disease in this patient was unknown until the
acute episode.
The final statement on the need of physician awareness about the fact
“MMI-induced acute liver injury in the setting of chronic advanced fibrosis
increases the risk of poor outcome due to the impairment of hepatic
regeneration”, rather a particular recommendation, should actually be a general
attitude in this setting.
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-10-93 (2010)

Reviewer's report
Title:Acute-on-chronic liver failure due to thiamazole in a patient with
hyperthyroidism and trilogy of Fallot: case report
Version: 2Date:3 August 2010
Reviewer: M Isabel Lucena
Reviewer's report:
The authors have adequately addressed all issues raised by this reviewer
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-10-93 (2010)

Reviewer's report
Title:Acute-on-chronic liver failure due to thiamazole in a patient with
hyperthyroidism and trilogy of Fallot: case report
Version: 2Date:12 August 2010
Reviewer: Raúl J J Andrade
Reviewer's report:
The manuscript have been improved. I have no additional queries
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-10-92 (2010)

Reviewer's report
Title:Infection with HIV and HCV enhances the release of Fatty Acid Synthase
into circulation: Evidence for a novel indicator of viral co-infection
Version: 1Date:2 February 2010
Reviewer: Tianyi Wang
Reviewer's report:
This report from Gerard Aragonès et al is a clinical study trying to estabish
correlation between the serum level of Fatty acid synthase serum level and HIV
(HCV) infection. Overall it is an interesting and important study that may
potentially lead to the discovery of a new biomarker. Several minor concerns
regarding the data analyses should be clarified:
1) in Figure 1, the treat may comfound the results. Would it be possible for the
authors to also compare the serum FASN level between healthy participants and
HIV-infected, untreated patients? It is crucial to separate the effect due to
infection from the effect due to treatment as these drugs are known to cause lipid
distrophy.
2) In Figure 2, perhaps viral load is a better indicator here. The authors should
also analyze the data by comparing the cytokine levels between healthy
participants and those infected individuals with detectable and undetectable viral
loads.
Level of interest: An article whose findings are important to those with closely
related research interests
Quality of written English: Acceptable
Statistical review: Yes, but I do not feel adequately qualified to assess the
statistics.
Declaration of competing interests:
NO
Review for 10.1186/1471-230X-10-92 (2010)

Reviewer's report
Title:Infection with HIV and HCV enhances the release of Fatty Acid Synthase
into circulation: Evidence for a novel indicator of viral infection
Version: 2Date:8 April 2010
Reviewer: Qiang Liu
Reviewer's report:
The authors have adequately addressed all of my 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-10-92 (2010)

Reviewer's report
Title:Infection with HIV and HCV enhances the release of Fatty Acid Synthase
into circulation: Evidence for a novel indicator of viral infection
Version: 2Date:20 April 2010
Reviewer: Tianyi Wang
Reviewer's report:
The revision has addressed my previous 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-10-92 (2010)

Reviewer's report
Title:Infection with HIV and HCV enhances the release of Fatty Acid Synthase
into circulation: Evidence for a novel indicator of viral infection
Version: 2Date:21 April 2010
Reviewer: Munechika Enjoji
Reviewer's report:
none
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-10-92 (2010)

Reviewer's report
Title:Infection with HIV and HCV enhances the release of Fatty Acid Synthase
into circulation: Evidence for a novel indicator of viral infection
Version: 2Date:6 August 2010
Reviewer: Giuliano Ramadori
Reviewer's report:
I went through the criticisms and the answers of the authors.
The authors really invested an enormous amount of effort to improve the quality
of the manuscript.
It is sometimes difficult to give an interpretation to Findings obtained in patients
with different viral infections and different drugs.
The number of patients is impressive and also the number of parameters
measured and added to the main parameter FASN.
I believe that the paper now deserves publication.
Review for 10.1186/1471-230X-10-91 (2010)

Reviewer's report
Title:Constitutive activation of glycogen synthase kinase-3beta correlates with
better prognosis and cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitors in human gastric cancer
Version: 5Date:11 February 2010
Reviewer: Kazunari Tominaga
Reviewer's report:
The authors investigated the relationship between activation of glycogen
synthase kinase-3# and prognosis of gastric cancer and the effect of
cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitors on gastric cancer cells. Overall, the data look
interesting. However, there are some problems with this paper.
Major comment
1. The authors concluded that constitutive activation of GSK correlates with
better prognosis of human gastric cancer by immunohistological analysis.
However, if expression of GSK is constitutive in the stomach and correlated with
the prognosis of patients with gastric cancer after the tumorigenesis, abundant
expression of GSK must be observed in the normal gastric tissues. They should
show the data about the expression of GSK in the normal gastric tissues.
2. The authors did not demonstrate the histological types of the overall cases in
the present study. As they know, gastric cancer cells often exhibit various
biological properties according to their histological types. So, I think this is a
serious problem in this study. They should evaluate the expression of GSK
according to the histological types.
3. In the survival data, there are some differences in the number of each stage of
gastric cancer between GSK-positive and –negative groups. Actually, survival
data about gastric cancer is generally correlated with the ratio of clinical stages.
Thus, I think this significant result about clinical survival may be due to the ratio
of clinical stages but not the differences in the expression of GSK. In addition, the
authors did not show the detailed information about postoperative adjuvant
chemotherapy which is an important factor for the prognosis of gastric cancer.
Level of interest: An article of insufficient interest to warrant publication in a
scientific/medical journal
Quality of written English: Acceptable
Statistical review: Yes, but I do not feel adequately qualified to assess the
statistics.
Review for 10.1186/1471-230X-10-91 (2010)

Reviewer's report
Title:Constitutive activation of glycogen synthase kinase-3beta correlates with
better prognosis and cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitors in human gastric cancer
Version: 5Date:13 February 2010
Reviewer: Gregory Kouraklis
Reviewer's report:
The full length article by Yu Jin Cho et al describes the expression of pGSK-3b in
276 human gastric carcinoma speciments.
Other studies have studied the role of GSK-3b in gastric cancer cells.
Today, the role of GSK-3Bb in gastric cancer still remains inconclusive.
The authors of the current study found that GSK-3b activation was frequently
observed in early-stage gastric carcinoma.
Major Compulsory Revisions
1. In the section "Patients", it is written that "The files of 276 surgically resected
gatric cancer examined ....".
In the same section later it is written: "The cases enrolled in this study included
64 advanced and 217 early stage gastric carcinomas".
What is the total number, 276 or 281?
2. It is not stated whether surgical treatment was curative in all patients.
3. It should be stated whether patients received postoperative radio- or
chemotherapy. If additional treatment was given, this must be encounter for the
multivariate analysis.
Discretionary Revisions
1. The authors should state how the sections were assessed. What was the
biological justification (i.e. molecular genetic) for a 10% cutoff for scoring tumors
as positive or negative?
Overall, it would have been advantageous for the authors to have analyzed their
results according to % of tumor cells stained and levels of staining intensity for all
the protein studied. It would have made for a more in-depth and complete work.
Level of interest: An article whose findings are important to those with closely
related research interests
Quality of written English: Acceptable
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-10-91 (2010)

Reviewer's report
Title:Constitutive activation of glycogen synthase kinase-3beta correlates with
better prognosis and cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitors in human gastric cancer
Version: 5Date:15 February 2010
Reviewer: Regine Schneider-Stock
Reviewer's report:
The authors show interesting data about the serine-threonine kinase glucogen
synthase kinase 3ß expression in human gastric cancer and verify a prognostic
relevance of GSK-3ß overexpression with GSK-3ß loss in advanced tumors.
Obviously, GSK-3ß phosphorylation is associated with a lower proliferation rate.
There are two major critizisms:
The tissue microarray consists of one punch per tumor block. How they have
ensured that this punch is representative for the tumor? Especially did the
authors verify that the immunostaining for all the markers was homogeneously??
It is known especially for MGMT or p21WAF that these markers show a very
heterogeneous staining pattern in tumors. Who has done the analysis, was it
verified by two independent investigators and how was the inter-observer
variance?
For the correlation between the markers (Tables 2 and 3), the raw data should be
used with Spearman rank correlation as a statistical test. What was the reason
for setting 10% as a cut-off? The authors have to give clear explanations.
Minor Comments:
Page 10, first line:
“to confirm the positive correlation between …”
There was not positive correlation! there was no correlation! and this has been
confirmed by the cell culture experiment
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-10-91 (2010)

Reviewer's report
Title:Constitutive activation of glycogen synthase kinase-3beta correlates with
better prognosis and cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitors in human gastric cancer
Version: 7Date:15 July 2010
Reviewer: Kazunari Tominaga
Reviewer's report:
The revised manuscript were well re-written. It is suitable for publication in this
journal.
Level of interest: An article of importance in its field
Quality of written English: Acceptable
Statistical review: Yes, but I do not feel adequately qualified to assess the
statistics.