Review for 10.1186/s12876-018-0893-9 (2018)

Reviewer ’s report  
 
Title: Macrocytic anemia is associated with the severity of li ver impairment in patients with 
hepatitis B virus -related decompensated cirrhosis: a retrospective cross -sectional study  
 
Version: 0 Date: 11 Aug 2018  
 
Reviewer: Chao Wu  
 
Reviewer's report:  
 
1、 It might be a good idea to show that MCV could reflect the severity of HBV -related 
decompensated cirrhosis. However, several known factors of evaluating liver function that were 
routinely checked in clinical practice were not found in the tables and might not be included in 
the analysis, such as albumin, choli nesterase and transaminase. It is necessary to analyze the 
performance of evaluating the liver function between MCV and some known indexes in patients 
with HBV -related decompensated cirrhosis.  
 
 
2、 On the other hand, several excellent scores for assessing t he severity of liver cirrhosis wrere 
widely applied in clinical practice, such as MELD score and CTP score. Thus, the meaning and 
value of MCV is modest due to only reflect the severity of HBV -related cirrhosis.  
 
 
3、 All patients were anemia in this study. Thus, MCV values may be influenced due to blood 
transfusions may be very common in these patients. I cannot see the information of blood 
transfusions. Please exclude the patients who received blood transfusion in recent months and 
further analyze the MCV v alues among three groups.  
 
 
4、 The authors should further analyze the correlation between MCV values and MELD score or 
CTP score to add the argument of conclusion.  
 
 
5、 Please add the P values between each two groups in figure 1.  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Are the methods appropriate and well described?  
If not, please spe cify 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.  
 
No 
 
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 manus cript or would you recommend an 
additional statistical review?  
If an additional s tatistical review is recommended, please speci fy what aspects require further 
assessment in your comments to the editors.  
 
I am able to assess the statistics  
 
Quality of written English  
Please indicate the quality of language in the manuscript:  
 
Needs some language correc tions 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 fro m 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 t hat 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 appl ied 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.  
 
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