Review for 10.1186/s12876-022-02588-0 (2022)

Reviewer’s report
Title: 
No association of serum ferritin levels with advanced liver fibrosis in
untreated German patients with autoimmune hepatitis
Version: 
0 
Date: 
16 Jul 2022
Reviewer's report:
The authors wanted to reproduce the result findings of Chen et al's previous
study using 85 untreated autoimmune hepatitis patients data from a German
hospital.
Reproduction of previous studies is important in terms of validation of the study.
However, I do not know if it is a setting sufficient to reproduce Chen's research
result. It may be due to a word limitation of the letter.
At first, I don't understand what you mean by normalizing ferritin levels with
respect to the upper limit of normal.
Also, I cannot interpret what the unit of upper limit of normal (ULN) means in
the table.
(If the problem is that serum ferritin does not follow the normal distribution, I
think it is easier to interpret it by applying a "log transformation".)
Second, it is questionable whether the liver fibrosis scoring system used in
Chen's study is comparable to the liver fibrosis scoring system (Ishak et al) used
in this study.
In my opinion, it would be more appropriate comparison to compare F0-3 vs. F4-
6 with the Ishak liver fibrosis scoring system.
(Reference: Chowdhury AB, Mehta KJ. Liver biopsy for assessment of chronic
liver diseases: a synopsis. Clin Exp Med. 2022 Feb 22. doi: 10.1007/s10238-022-
00799-z.)
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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
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Yes
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Are the images in this manuscript (including electrophoretic gels and blots) free
from apparent manipulation?
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