Review for 10.1186/s12876-021-01711-x (2021)

Reviewer’s report
Title: 
First-line oral antiviral therapies showed similar efficacies in suppression
of serum HBcrAg in chronic hepatitis B patients
Version: 
1 
Date: 
08 Jul 2020
Reviewer's report:
In this manuscript (BMGE-D-20-00620R1), the authors described the effect of
serum HBcrAg in the evaluation of first-line oral anti-hepatitis B virus clinical
treatment (ETV, TDF, and TAF). They compared changes of serum HBcrAg in
patients with different HBeAg status and different time points (weeks 0, 24, and
48), and selected HBV DNA and transaminase as references.
In this reviewer's opinion, the major regret of this manuscript is the lack of liver
puncture, including as well as the pathological evaluation of stage of
inflammation and fibrosis, and also the level of cccDNA in the tissue. And
HBsAg and cirrhosis are essential diagnostic and evaluation indicators for
hepatitis B patients, but these were not mentioned in the manuscript.
In addition, there are some minor problems in the article.
1. Because serum HBcrAg is a relatively rare detection method, it is
recommended that the author briefly introduce process of the HBcrAg detection
in the Materials and Methods.
2. Are there patients with HBeAg or HBsAg positive turned negative during
treatment? If so, whether the serum HBcrAg of these patients decreased more
significantly.
3. In Table 3, the authors described the cut-off valve of the undetectable of
HBcrAg and HBV DNA. They should be written in Materials and Methods to
facilitate readers.
4. In Figure 4, the ordinate is not 0-100%so recommend author to increase the
specific value of the ordinate.
5. In the Conclusion of the abstract, the author indicated that "the HBcrAg
reduction was numerically greater in tenofovir-treated group". However, Figure 4
showed that there are more undetectable HBcrAg patients in ETV-treated than
tenofovir-treated group. So, the gap of HBcrAg level between the two groups is
not very clear, and the sentence is not recommended to mentioned in the Results
and Summary.
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No
Are the methods appropriate and well described?
If not, please specify what is required in your comments to the authors.
Yes
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authors.
No
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Yes
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recommend an additional statistical review?
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require further assessment in your comments to the editors.
I am able to assess the statistics
Quality of written English
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Needs some language corrections before being published
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