Review for 10.1186/s12876-020-01317-9 (2020)

Reviewer ’s report  
 
Title: Relationship between mucosal healing by tacrolimus and r elapse of refractory ulcerative 
colitis: A retrospective study  
 
Version: 2 Date: 08 Feb 2020  
 
Reviewer: Lorenzo Bertani  
 
Reviewer's report:  
 
1) Although the authors improve significantly the paper with the corrections suggested by the 
reviewers, the point of the use of corticosteroid treatment at diagnosis was not evaluated 
carefully: indeed, the dat a of patients treated with corticosteroids at diagnosis were not displayed 
nor in the results section, nor in the table 1. Moreover, in the discussion section, page 9, the 
article of Safroneeva et al. was cited incorrectly, since the text did not refer to the proportion of 
patients treated with corticosteroids at diagnosis in terms of a worse outcome. Moreover, in this 
perspective, also the articles of Bertani et al (Dig Dis Sci, 2019) and Khan et al. (APT, 2014) 
should be cited and compared to the study co hort. 
 
2) Once again, I want to clarify that an English native -speaker revision is needed for this article, 
since there are a lot of sentences with grammatical errors (i.e.page 9, line 25, "UC is a chronic 
inflammatory disease and repeated episodes of rela pse and remission.")  
 
Are the methods appropriate and wel l 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 adequa tely 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 statistical review is recommende d, 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 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, f ees, funding, or salary 
from an organisation that may in a ny way gain or lose financial ly 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 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  
 
I agree to the open peer review policy of the journal. I understan d that my name will be included 
on my  report to the authors and, if the manuscript is accepted f or publication, m y named report 
including any attachments I upload will be posted on the website along with the authors' 
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which I do not wish to be included in my named report can be in cluded as confidential comments 
to the editors, which will not be published.  
 
I agree to the open peer review policy of the journal