JerMa88/BMC_Gastroenterology_Peer_Reviews huggingface dataset:
Review for 10.1186/1471-230X-10-51 (2010)

Reviewer's report
Title:Central Obesity and Atherogenic Dyslipidemia in Metabolic Syndrome are
Associated with Increased Risk for Colorectal Adenoma in a Chinese Population
Version: 2Date:2 January 2010
Reviewer: Giovanni Misciagna
Reviewer's report:
Minor essential revisions :
page 9, line 1 - analysis was used to estimate the ORs of MetS by age, MetS
status smoking and ---> analysis was used to estimate the ORs of colon polyps
by age, MetS status smoking and...
Table 2 - the statistical notation on column 5 and footnotes should be more
detailed (Scheffe's test --> Anova Scheffe's test ?)
Table 3 - the statistical notation of the table should be more detailed (Age and
sex adjusted odds ratio--> in the Methods section of the paper is written that the
adjustement was made also for other variables; it is not written in the table the
method of adjustment; it is adjusted for gender, but gender is in the table)
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-10-51 (2010)

Reviewer's report
Title:Central Obesity and Atherogenic Dyslipidemia in Metabolic Syndrome are
Associated with Increased Risk for Colorectal Adenoma in a Chinese Population
Version: 3Date:1 April 2010
Reviewer: Jonas Manjer
Reviewer's report:
Excellent answers.
Nothing to add.
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' / JM
Review for 10.1186/1471-230X-10-50 (2010)

Reviewer's report
Title:Drain tube migration into the anastomotic site of an esophagojejunostomy
for gastric small cell carcinoma: short report
Version: 1Date:26 January 2010
Reviewer: Seungho choi
Reviewer's report:
Thank you for your effort.
One of complication in gastric band for the bariatric surgery is migration of band
into gastric lumen or intraperitoneal space. Even though it is not frequent, foreign
body might migrate into intact bowel lumen from free peritoneal space. Surgeons
do not like to locate the drain near the anastomotic site on the cross, because
foreign body could injure the anastomosis. Taken together, intraluminal migration
of a drain through an anastomotic site might be possible. I reviewed this paper as
follows:
1. Please focus on the intraluminal migration of a drain. Small cell carcinoma and
clinical symptoms of cardia cancer are out of boundary of this paper.
2. Postoperative course within one month should be described in detail. The
color, amount, and odor of drainage are import factors.
3. We assume that closed drain was inserted though flank area. In that situation,
how could you remove the drain under endoscopic guidance?
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-10-50 (2010)

Reviewer's report
Title:Drain tube migration into the anastomotic site of an esophagojejunostomy
for gastric small cell carcinoma: short report
Version: 1Date:8 February 2010
Reviewer: Razvan Scurtu
Reviewer's report:
The case report entitled „ Drain tube migration into the anastomotic site of an
esophagojejunostomy for gastric small cell carcinoma: short report” by
Peng-Sheng Lai et al provides interesting informations on an very unusual
situation. The report may be accepted for publication.
Discretionary revisions
For instance it will be useful to understand why the drain was kept in place for
about a month ? It will also be very useful to understand why the authors had to
retrieve the drain under endoscopic guidance?
Minor essential revisions
The authors should review the figures number since in the legends apear to be
1A and 1B while in the text the figures are marked as 1 and 2 respectively.
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-10-50 (2010)

Reviewer's report
Title:Drain tube migration into the anastomotic site of an esophagojejunostomy
for gastric small cell carcinoma: short report
Version: 2Date:12 March 2010
Reviewer: Seungho choi
Reviewer's report:
Thank you for your efforts.
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.
Review for 10.1186/1471-230X-10-49 (2010)

Reviewer's report
Title:Nutrigenomics Therapy of HCV Hepatosteatosis
Version: 4Date:7 October 2009
Reviewer: Giuliano Ramadori
Reviewer's report:
This review on ‚nutrigenomics’ in HCV-related liver steatosis addresses in a first
instance the effects of fatty acids and dietary fat composition on transcriptional
activity of genes involved both in carbohydrate and lipid metabolism.
This is a comprehensive review on a relevant topic. Some points, however, need
to be addressed:
1. Abstract – Methods: PubMed search is given as the only method that has
been applied. However, a description of the method (apart from the 4 keywords:
e.g. which publication period was searched, were only articles in English
considered or also others?) and the results are given in no place (How many
matches?). Possibly a structured abstract with a method section is not
appropriate for a review.
2. Abstract – Results: The content of this para does not cover the content of the
review.
3. The term ‘transcription genes’ first mentioned on page 6, 2nd para, is
misleading.
4. Ref 9 might be substituted by a review which focuses on HCV genomic
organisation, e.g. one by Ralf Bartenschlager.
5. In the context of steatosis and VLDL assembly, the authors should refer to
hypolipoproteinemia in HCV-related steatosis. The mentioning of the fact that
PPAR agonists ameliorate hyperlipidemia in humans and mice is misleading
(pages 9 and 10).
6. Many spelling errors, i.e. even within the author name and the department,
need to be deleted, and the manuscript needs a careful language editing.
Level of interest: An article of importance in its field
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 intersts' below
Review for 10.1186/1471-230X-10-49 (2010)

Reviewer's report
Title:Nutrigenomics Therapy of HCV Hepatosteatosis
Version: 4Date:20 October 2009
Reviewer: Patrice Couzigou
Reviewer's report:
The review is good and clear pointing to a potentially important topic in liver
disease especially virus c
The answers to the different issues you have listed are globally positive and so I
think publication in BMC Gastroenterology is worthwhile
Review for 10.1186/1471-230X-10-48 (2010)

Reviewer's report
Title:Antibodies against gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) and
destruction of enteric neurons in 3 patients suffering from gastrointestinal
dysfunction
Version: 1Date:5 June 2009
Reviewer: Jackie Wood
Reviewer's report:
This is a rather abbrevated report of three cases with functional gastrointestinal
disorders associated with enteric autoimmune degenerative neuropathy related
to circulating anti-enteric antibodies. It is groundbreaking and interesting for
interests in enteric neurophysiology, because mostly as yet unpublished
observations that high titers of anti-enteric antibodies are present in the serum of
an astonishly high proportion of patients with a Rome II/III symptom based
diagnosis of IBS. The data from the three patients was obtained with appropriate
and valid analytical methodologies and convincingly support the conclusion that
the patients' symptoms reflect degenerative loss of the enteric nervous system
(i.e., the brain-in-the-gut. The authors are congratulated for a well prepared
manuscript written in clear understandable English, with valid data that support
interpretations and conclusions.
Level of interest: An article of outstanding merit and interest 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-10-48 (2010)

Reviewer's report
Title:Antibodies against gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) and
destruction of enteric neurons in 3 patients suffering from gastrointestinal
dysfunction
Version: 2Date:11 December 2009
Reviewer: Jackie Wood
Reviewer's report:
The authors in my view have replied adequately to the concerns of Reviewers
2&3. Although, the work raises many specific and unanswered questions, I
refrained from nit-picking criticisms in my earlier review because the paper has
significant clinical relevance of broader scope for understanding functional GI
disorders. The importance of the paper is that it represents another step in
stimulation of interest in the concept that multiple gastrointestinal disorders
hitherto having a symptom-based classification of functional in fact reflect an
autoimmune degenerative enteric neuropathy. The concept started with the
discovery by Verne et. al. (Dig Dis Sci 1997; 42:307) that lower esophageal
sphincter achalasia in a majority of patients was explained by the presence of
circulating anti-enteric antibodies and immune-related degeneration of the enteric
inhibitory motor neurons, which innervate and open the sphincter. This
manuscript should add to impetus in stimulating interest in research on
autoimmune degenerative enteric neuropathy as the common factor underlying
multiple FGIDs (e.g., functional dyspepsia, IBS, idiopathic pseudoobstruction and
achalasia in various sphincters. After all, the gut does not work well when the
enteric nervous system (ENS) is not working well. The gut does not work at all
without the ENS minibrain.
Level of interest: An article of outstanding merit and interest 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-10-48 (2010)

Reviewer's report
Title:Antibodies against gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) and
destruction of enteric neurons in 3 patients suffering from gastrointestinal
dysfunction
Version: 2Date:13 December 2009
Reviewer: Willemijntje Hoogerwerf
Reviewer's report:
The manuscript is acceptable for publication
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 interest
Review for 10.1186/1471-230X-10-48 (2010)

Reviewer's report
Title:Antibodies against gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) and
destruction of enteric neurons in 3 patients suffering from gastrointestinal
dysfunction
Version: 2Date:23 February 2010
Reviewer: Philippe Ducrotte
Reviewer's report:
General comment
This is an interesting study raising an original hypothesis to explain some severe
GI motility disorders. Even if the mechanistic study in animals is not absolutely
convincing, it provides some additional interesting informations. The paper is well
written.
Minor comment
Is figure 2 useful ?
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-10-47 (2010)

Reviewer's report
Title:Study protocol: population screening for colorectal cancer by colonoscopy
or CT colonography: a randomized controlled trial
Version: 1Date:24 February 2010
Reviewer: Jesse Lachter
Reviewer's report:
Major compulsory revisions:
this proposal repeatedly states that colonoscopy and CT colography are the only
modalities which allow for screening of the entire colon.
Of course- the authors know that the double contrast barium enema delivered
results not far from those in some major centers doing CT colography, and the
GIVEN imaging capsule generally proved better than both forms of radiographic
studies.
The rationale for why there are two arms of colonoscopy and just one of CT
colography must be given, especially in light of the authors' assumption that
telephoning will lead to higher participation.
minor grammar errors should be revised.
Much of the discussion on FOBT is extraneous.
The specific information to be given to candidates regarding the known risks
including perforation from CT colography should certainly appear as a mandatory
aspect not mentioned in the proposal, but which should be stated clearly to every
candidate in the CT arm.
The prep for CT colography is very different from that for colonoscopy n this
study, unlike most studies which did their best to have a full bowel prep to get
optimal results from CT colography. The differences in prep could lead to
un-usable results.
The statistics all seem reasonable, except that the uptake of colonoscopy as a
result of a phone call sounds optimistic- this should be piloted, and results of a
pilot study reported.
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-10-47 (2010)

Reviewer's report
Title:Study protocol: population screening for colorectal cancer by colonoscopy
or CT colonography: a randomized controlled trial
Version: 2Date:21 April 2010
Reviewer: Jesse Lachter
Reviewer's report:
none
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-10-46 (2010)

Reviewer's report
Title:A novel biomarker TERTmRNA is applicable for an early detection of
hepatoma
Version: 1Date:7 September 2009
Reviewer: Giovanni Tarantino
Reviewer's report:
Major Compulsory Revisions
The AA are kindly requested
to improve the statistical presentation, better describing the used tools and giving
appropiate outputs, i.e., ORs , r or rho and so on.
to set the criteria for the gold standard,
to discuss other findings present in literature,
to pinpoint the limitations of this study and perform a cost/benefit analysis of the
propose test,and finally,
to cut down a lot of words in the Abstract, Introduction and Discussion sections.
Level of interest: An article of importance in its field
Quality of written English: Needs some language corrections before being
published
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-10-46 (2010)

Reviewer's report
Title:A novel biomarker TERTmRNA is applicable for an early detection of
hepatoma
Version: 1Date:7 September 2009
Reviewer: helen Reeves
Reviewer's report:
This is an interesting and thorough research study, which includes large numbers
of patients and appropriate controls. It is generally well written and represents an
important contribution to the serach for diagnostic biomarkers for early HCC in
patients with chronic viral hepatitis.
Major Compulsory Revisions / Minor Essential Revisions :
The authors demonstrate very clearly that serum hTERT mRNA is superior as a
biomarker, both in terms of sensitivity and specificity , and positive and negative
predictive values, to other commonly used biomarkers. However, although the
authors comment, for example, on the numbers of patients negative for one
biomarker who were positive for another, they do not present data analysing the
success of combinations of biomarkers. eg. what is the level of improvement in
sensitivity and specificity when combining hTERT with AFP ? or with DCP ? This
would be particularly interesting for the early/smaller tumours. Really, I would
have liked to see more of the data for different size and differentiation grade
tumours. Figure 5 is excellent in this regard for size, and a similar figure for grade
may further enhance the manuscript, but do not reveal additional value of
biomarker combinations.
Discretionary revisions - The authors imply in their abstract, introduction and
early discussion that it is primarily because HCC is a complex disease, involving
many cellular signalling pathways, that a novel biomarker is required. While this
may well be true, it is primarily because the presently used biomarkers are not
sufficiently good enough, especially in early disease, to be used as surveillance
or diagnostic tests. I would suggest this be introduced at an earlier stage.
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-10-46 (2010)

Reviewer's report
Title:A novel biomarker TERTmRNA is applicable for an early detection of
hepatoma
Version: 1Date:19 September 2009
Reviewer: Michael Grusch
Reviewer's report:
The manuscript “A novel biomarker TERTmRNA is applicable for an early
detection of hepatoma” by Miura et al describes that in a study including 638
subjects (303with HCC) analysis of telomerase mRNA in serum by real-time
RT-PCR was a superior biomarker for compared to AFP, AFP-L3 and DCP in
diagnosis and detection of recurrence of HCC.
There is indeed an urgent need - and ongoing search - for improved HCC
biomarkers and the data reported here for hTERT mRNA, if confirmed, seem
promising. Important clarifications/improvements, however, have to be made by
the authors before this study can be published.
Compulsory revisions:
1) Regarding their method of TERT mRNA detection, the authors refer to an
earlier publication, but say that they used more efficient primers than in the
earlier report. Primer sequences should be given and it should be explained how
RNA controls for quantification were performed and copy numbers per ml were
derived. Are logarithmic values log2 or log10? How was exclusion of false
negatives performed? No reference at all is made to the detection of the other
markers.
2) Language editing is essential, as multiple statements are hard to interpret in
their present form.
3) Although a different approach was used, the conflict with recent data of Kong
et al (J Cancer Res Clin Oncol) should be discussed.
4) Given the assumed specificity of hTERT for immortalized cancer cells, how do
the authors interpret the apparently increased level in LC and CH compare to
healthy controls and what were the statistics of this effect?
Level of interest: An article of importance in its field
Quality of written English: Not suitable for publication unless extensively edited
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-10-46 (2010)

Reviewer's report
Title:A novel biomarker TERTmRNA is applicable for an early detection of
hepatoma
Version: 1Date:24 September 2009
Reviewer: Hans Spangenberg
Reviewer's report:
The paper entitled „A novel biomarker TERTmRNA is applicable for an early
detection of hepatoma” by Miural. describes the detection of TERTmRNA in the
serum of patients with HCC. The paper is well witten, the methods used are state
of the art. Even though the results of the study are quite intruiging, some points
should be addressed pior to publication.
1. The study population is not well described. A table with the characteristics
should be added. (Figure 1 with should include the characteristics) could not be
found.
2. The control population is not well chosen, since most HCC patients are male,
however in this paper the majority of control patients is female.
3. For better statistical comparison more patients with liver cirrhosis with different
child classification should be evaluated.
4. longitudinal analysis of TERTmRNA should be done to analyse the predictive
value of this marker to detect HCCs.
5. Was the diagnosis of HCC according to AASLD guidelines, this should be
stated in M and M.
6. The recurrence of HCC after TACE, was there any correlation of TERT with
imaging (Ultrasound, CT, MR)?
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-10-46 (2010)

Reviewer's report
Title:A novel biomarker TERTmRNA is applicable for an early detection of
hepatoma
Version: 1Date:6 October 2009
Reviewer: Patrizia Pontisso
Reviewer's report:
The authors describe the diagnostic performance of serum human telomerase
reverse transcriptase mRNA for hepatocellular carcinoma. The results indicate
that this approach is highly sensitive and specific, allowing the conclusion that
hTERT mRNA is superior to conventional tumor markers in the diagnosis and
recurrence of HCC.
The availability of useful diagnostic markers for primary liver tumors is still an
unmet clinical need and the study has addressed such an important issue. To
better define the clinical relevance of the study, the following points should be
addressed:
1. HCC occurs in the majority of the cases on a cirrhotic liver, and cirrhosis is the
population at risk, where other tumor markers, such AFP, are frequently positive,
lowering the specificity of the biomarker, when compared to this population. On
the basis of these considerations, it would be interesting to calculate the
diagnostic performances of hTERT mRNA, including ROC curve analysis, using
cirrhotic patients and not healthy subjects as controls.
2. The clinical significance of monitoring the effect of therapies using hTERT
mRNA has been reported only in two representative cases. It is unclear whether
the concordance with clinical outcome is a common behavior in all patients or
whether this has not been evaluated in all treated patients. At list 12 months
follow-up after treatment should be required to draw any conclusion on the
prognostic value of the behavior of this marker.
3. The authors describe that the level of hTERT mRNA correlates with tumor
differentiation. However, in Fig. 6 (panel D) the higher levels were shown in
poorly differentiated cases, while in the discussion (pag.16) they report that
“…hTERT mRNA expression was closely associated with well to moderate
differentiation degree..” This point should be clarified.
Minor comments:
- In the Patients and Methods section the list of all the clinical parameters, also
reported in Fig 2 (and not in Figure 1) is redundant.
- The authors should specify how the diagnosis of HCC was achieved in tumors
of size <10mm.
- English should be substantially improved
Level of interest: An article of importance in its field
Quality of written English: Not suitable for publication unless extensively edited
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' below.
Review for 10.1186/1471-230X-10-46 (2010)

Reviewer's report
Title:A novel biomarker TERTmRNA is applicable for early detection of
hepatoma
Version: 2Date:27 November 2009
Reviewer: Giovanni Tarantino
Reviewer's report:
The manuscript has been ameliorated in almost every part, resulting in a good
piece of research.
Level of interest: An article of importance in its field
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-10-46 (2010)

Reviewer's report
Title:A novel biomarker TERTmRNA is applicable for early detection of
hepatoma
Version: 2Date:23 December 2009
Reviewer: Hans Spangenberg
Reviewer's report:
The authors have answered to most of the points of the reviewers. however
some important questions have not been solved and should defintely be
answered prior to publication.
In my opinion it should be possible to better match the control patients with the
HCC patients. This needs further experiments, however, this is crucial for the
importance of the findings.
Furthermore comparable studies with hTERT are not sufficiently be addressed in
the paper.
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-10-46 (2010)

Reviewer's report
Title:A novel biomarker TERTmRNA is applicable for early detection of
hepatoma
Version: 2Date:24 December 2009
Reviewer: Michael Grusch
Reviewer's report:
The Manuscript has substantially improved, but would still profit from further
rigorous language editing.
Page 9 line 13 replace "with only with" by "only with", line 15 replace "tumor
number of tumor" with "number of tumors" or "tumor number".
"TUNNEL" in Fig. 6 and "Results" section should be "TUNEL" as in the "Materials
and Methods" section.
Level of interest: An article of importance in its field
Quality of written English: Needs some language corrections before being
published
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-10-46 (2010)

Reviewer's report
Title:A novel biomarker TERTmRNA is applicable for early detection of
hepatoma
Version: 2Date:7 January 2010
Reviewer: Patrizia Pontisso
Reviewer's report:
The Authors have addressed the main criticism and the paper is now
substantially improved.
The only specification still required is the control group used for comparison to
calculate the specificity of hTERTmRNA. If samples of normal subjects have
been used, this information should be included in the text.
Minor points:
- Results section (Pag 9, line 9): the number of the figure (Fig 2) might refer to
Figure 5 (or table 1?)
- pag 10, line 6 : spelling error (different instead of differently).
Level of interest: An article of importance in its field
Quality of written English: Needs some language corrections before being
published
Statistical review: Yes, but I do not feel adequately qualified to assess the
statistics.
Review for 10.1186/1471-230X-10-45 (2010)

Reviewer's report
Title:Diagnosis of rectal cancer by Tissue Resonance Interaction Method
Version: 2Date:12 January 2010
Reviewer: Cosimo De Nunzio
Reviewer's report:
The authors evaluated the possibility to detect rectal cancer with the TRIMprob.
They have partially replied to previous comments. However major concerns still
remain. The authors still considered the hot point of their publication the use of a
70 U as a cut off point to reduce false negative. However the study design does
not allow this conclusion. TRIMprob used a visual real time cut-off (two bars are
about 50 UI) to define the presence of cancer. The authors should considered
their experience only as a first step to plan a new study where the TRIMprob will
be performed using a different visual cut-off (3 o more bars). You can not perform
the test using a two bars visual scale and than analyse the data using a different
cut-off.
The possible presence of bladder and prostate cancer was excluded using a TC
scan. However TC scan is not considered a test to evaluate the possible
presence of prostate cancer (PSA, DRE are the standard). This point should be
considered and discussed as a possible limitation to the study results.
AUC is 0.96 and accuracy is 90.0 a type error?.
Data obtained form the trimprob in this study could not be compared to data
obtained for faecal occult blood test. The study does not compare TRIMprob with
other non-invasive tests (this point should be clarified in the discussion section).
Data on accuracy of colonscopy for diagnosis of colon cancer should be included
or referred to the available literature.
Level of interest: An article of importance in its field
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-10-45 (2010)

Reviewer's report
Title:Diagnosis of rectal cancer by Tissue Resonance Interaction Method
Version: 2Date:7 February 2010
Reviewer: Oner Sanli
Reviewer's report:
I am convinced about the revisions made by the authors.
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.
Declaration of competing interests:
'I declare that I have no competing interests'
Review for 10.1186/1471-230X-10-45 (2010)

Reviewer's report
Title:Diagnosis of rectal cancer by Tissue Resonance Interaction Method
Version: 3Date:19 March 2010
Reviewer: Cosimo De Nunzio
Reviewer's report:
I am convinced about the revisions made by the authors.
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.
Review for 10.1186/1471-230X-10-44 (2010)

Reviewer's report
Title:Effective in vivo and ex vivo gene transfer to intestinal mucosa by
VSV-G-pseudotyped lentiviral vectors
Version: 4Date:20 January 2010
Reviewer: Kenneth Cornetta
Reviewer's report:
revision 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 am a founder of Rimedion Inc. there is no conflict with this work.
Review for 10.1186/1471-230X-10-44 (2010)

Reviewer's report
Title:Effective in vivo and ex vivo gene transfer to intestinal mucosa by
VSV-G-pseudotyped lentiviral vectors
Version: 5Date:9 April 2010
Reviewer: Steven Polyak
Reviewer's report:
Thank you for addressing the comments. The revision is acceptable.
Minor comment:
You removed "quantitative morphometry" from the text of the methods
subsection (page 10 of pdf document)but not from the header. Please removed
"quantitative morphometry" from the heading of that subsection 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-10-43 (2010)

Reviewer's report
Title:Severity of acute hepatitis and its outcome in patients with dengue fever in
a tertiary care hospital Karachi, Pakistan (South Asia): An Analytic cross
sectional study.
Version: 2Date:20 September 2009
Reviewer: Mei-Chuan Kuo
Reviewer's report:
Please uniform the expression of data,” mean ±SD unit”. Some of them are mean
unit ±SD. Some of them are mean ±SD unit
Abstract
Result 2nd line
mean ALT of 194.87 ± 351.93 IU/L; mean AST of 436.76 ±987 IU/L and mean
T.Bil of 1.52 ± 2.59 mg/dl.
Result:
Line 4, 6±3.27 days with mean temperature of 38.50C + 1.
line 9
pulse was 96 beats/min +18.5, mean systolic blood pressure was 113 mmHg +16
with mean diastolic blood pressure of 71 mmHg +11..
line 11
of 13.71+2.37 gm/l, mean hematocrit of 40.07 % + 6.8, mean white blood cell
count of 5.5+5/cmm and mean platelet count of 67.16+59.54/cmm. Mean
Activated Partial Thromboplastin Time (APTT) was 36.34+ 11.56 seconds with
control of 40 seconds. Mean Cr was 1.12+2 mg/dl. Liver function tests (LFTs)
show the mean ALT of 194.87 IU/L + 351.93, mean AST of 436.76 IU/L + 987,
mean GGT of 149.65 IU/L + 161.44,ALK.Phos 112.47 IU/L + 96 and mean T.Bil
of 1.52 mg/dl+ 2.59. Almost 90% (629) of the patients had elevated ALT
(hepatitis).The mean LOS was 3.88+2.7 days
Level of interest: An article of limited interest
Quality of written English: Needs some language corrections before being
published
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-10-43 (2010)

Reviewer's report
Title:Severity of acute hepatitis and its outcome in patients with dengue fever in
a tertiary care hospital Karachi, Pakistan (South Asia): An Analytic cross
sectional study.
Version: 2Date:26 November 2009
Reviewer: Fransisco Souto
Reviewer's report:
I have pointed two major compulsory revisions on my first review that I have
considered important points in this manuscript of Parkash et al.
The authors disagreed and did not convinced me about their opinions.
The material is interesting and may be usefull for readers working in the tropics. I
would like that it could be published, but I am afraid that I am correct and the
paper has major problems.
I cannot agree with the publication except the manuscript was evaluated by an
epidemiologist in order to clarify my methodological query: I think that is a
longitudinal study (the authors analyzed it as a cohort study, with Cox regression
and hazard ratios) however the authors insist that it is a cross-sectional and state
it in the title, abstract and materials. If other referees think that I am wrong, the
paper will be free to be published.
I also recomend that other hepatologist should analyze the mauscript in order to
evaluate the decision of the authors of remaining to classify patients as "mild /
moderate / severe hepatitis" only by a isolated biochemical marker (ALT). I think
it would sound more "scientific" if the authors used terms such as
"necroinflamatory activity", "biochemical liver injury", "liver cell involvement", etc.
instead "hepatitis".
Declaration of competing interests:
no competing interests
Review for 10.1186/1471-230X-10-43 (2010)

Reviewer's report
Title:Severity of acute hepatitis and its outcome in patients with dengue fever in
a tertiary care hospital Karachi, Pakistan (South Asia):
Version: 3Date:4 January 2010
Reviewer: Fransisco Souto
Reviewer's report:
The manuscript is currently apropriated to be published.
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-10-43 (2010)

Reviewer's report
Title:Severity of acute hepatitis and its outcome in patients with dengue fever in
a tertiary care hospital Karachi, Pakistan (South Asia):
Version: 5Date:25 February 2010
Reviewer: Dorothea Nitsch
Reviewer's report:
The authors have answered most of the points that were queried.
However, there are few final alterations that need to be made to the manuscript.
- Please add on page 5 ‘(n=6)’ as follows:
‘We had excluded all those patients who had underlying Chronic Liver Disease
(CLD) or known positive serology for viral hepatitis (HBsAg or HCVAb; n=6)
and those patients who had malaria.’
- Please delete Figure 1a (as discussed previously, these numbers do not allow
for length of follow-up)
- Please keep the survival curve for figure 1b as new Figure 1.
- Please delete cumulative hazard and log-survival (the old figure 1b) as they
contain essentially the same information.
- Please add numbers at risk in each group displayed below the new Figure 1
- Please clarify for the journal reader who looks at Figure II what the middle, the
top and the bottom of the box, and the whiskers indicate.
- Please add to the methods that Fisher's exact tests were used when numbers
were too small to perform chi-square testing
-Table 1 needs further amendments. Firstly, for a non-statistical reader it will be
hard to understand why percentages of death and survival for each group
(mild-moderate as opposed to severe hepatitis) are not adding up to 100 percent.
Because the authors have calculated column percentages (ignoring the
prognostic design of the study) it reads at present that 50 % of those with
mild-moderate hepatitis died whilst at the same time 85% survived! The crude
numbers for ‘surviving’ are wrong, as they ignore the censoring events and
difference of length of stay. This table should form part of the main manuscript.
The table columns that should be presented are as follows:
1. Diagnosis categories
2. Severity of hepatitis
3. Deaths (n)
4. Death rate (deaths/10 days)
5. (95%CI for death rate)
6. LOS(days) +SD
7. P value for difference in death rates (log-rank)
- Table 2 is also important. Again as it stands I don’t believe it – how can a
complication (renal failure) that occurs at the same frequency in both groups
(both times 50%) have a significant difference at p=0.002? There is something
seriously wrong here. Unless the authors come up with some crude original
numbers rather than some arbitrary percentages I don’t believe this table at all.
Level of interest: An article of importance in its field
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-10-43 (2010)

Reviewer's report
Title:Severity of acute hepatitis and its outcome in patients with dengue fever in
a tertiary care hospital Karachi, Pakistan (South Asia):
Version: 6Date:25 March 2010
Reviewer: Dorothea Nitsch
Reviewer's report:
The authors have amended the manuscript as suggested, although some of what
I suggested was slightly misunderstood. With regards to the tables in the
manuscript there are still minor alterations necessary. I list them below.
-Table 1 needs further amendments. I suggested the following amendments, and
list what the authors did.
The table columns that should be presented are as follows:
1. Diagnosis categories
Done
2. Severity of hepatitis
Done
3. Deaths (n)
This was done, but the authors calculated percentages when these are in fact
wrong given the study design (because of the difference in the length of follow-up
each patient should only contribute relative to the time they were seen, that is
why I suggested to put the next column). So, please remove the percent indicator
in the table.
4. Death rate (deaths/10 days)
This was done
5. (95%CI for death rate)
The authors calculated a confidence interval for the rate ratio, and not the rates
themselves. For in total 4 different rates in this table in column 4 I would expect
to see in total 4 different confidence intervals.
I think at this stage the easiest thing is to replace this CI for the rate ratio with the
Hazard ratio and it's 95% confidence interval.
6.LOS(days) +SD
This was done
7. P value for difference in death rates (log-rank)
This was added as a separate column in the table
The authors added also a confidence interval for the difference in LOS between
the groups, but no corresponding point estimate. I would suggest to add this
point estimate (they have that measure in the text).
- Table 2: the numbers are really small - all the p-values should be Fisher's exact
test as this gives a more precise p-value in this situation. I suspect however that
changing this won't alter the main conclusions.
Level of interest: An article of importance in its field
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-10-42 (2010)

Reviewer's report
Title:Carbon monoxide-Releasing Molecule-2 (CORM-2) attenuates acute
hepatic ischemia reperfusion injury in rats
Version: 1Date:7 January 2010
Reviewer: Leandra Ramalho
Reviewer's report:
Reviewer(s)' Comments to Author:
The present study determined the effect of Carbon monoxide-Releasing
Molecule-2 (CORM-2) in the acute hepatic ischemia reperfusion injury in rats.
The animals underwent to a classical ischemia/reperfusion model and the
respective treatments. The authors have accessed frequently utilized parameters
in ischemia/reperfusion studies. The authors conclude that CORM-2 ameliorates
acute hepatic ischemia reperfusion injury in rats.
Minor comments:
1. The authors should provide an alternative method, like as PCR, to confirm the
immunochemistry findings.
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-10-42 (2010)

Reviewer's report
Title:Carbon monoxide-Releasing Molecule-2 (CORM-2) attenuates acute
hepatic ischemia reperfusion injury in rats
Version: 1Date:19 January 2010
Reviewer: Bingwei Sun
Reviewer's report:
Major Compulsory Revisions.
The manuscript by Yunwei Wei, et al. entitled “Carbon monoxide-Releasing
Molecule-2 (CORM-2) attenuates acute hepatic ischemia reperfusion injury in
rats” is presented for review.
The obtained results indicate that CORM-2-released CO protected the liver from
I/Ri by a reduction of AST and ALT, upregulated the expression of Bcl-2 protein,
inhibited the activation of NF-#B, reduced the cytokines production, and
attenuated the PMN accumulation in the liver after I/Ri.
The proposed experiments are straightforward and well controlled. The findingsof
the present study seems interesting, however, the major concern with the
manuscript is the dose of CORM-2 administrated in this study. The CORM-2
concentration used in the current study (i.e. 8mg/ml) was originally described and
used in mouse model of sepsis (Sun BW, et al. “Attenuation of Leukocytes
Sequestration by CO-releasing Molecules -liberated CO in the Liver of Thermal
Mice” J Burn Care Res. 2007#28#1##173-181 and Cepinskas et al. “Carbon
monoxide liberated from carbon monoxide-releasing molecule CORM-2
attenuates inflammation in the liver of septic mice” Am J Physiol Gastrointest
Liver Physiol 294: G184–G191, 2008). However, why the authors used the same
dose of CORM-2 for the study in rats? Did the authors measure the COHb level
in the rats under the administration of CORM-2 with the dose of 8mg/ml?
This issue should be properly addressed.
Additional points to consider:
1. Carbon monoxide (CO) is well known to have anti-inflammatory, anti-oxidative
and cytoprotective effects. In this study, the authors observed the
anti-inflammatory effects of CO in the liver I/R model in rats. However, they did
not rule out the effects of other products (i.e. bilirubin) of HO-1 activity. Therefore,
it is necessary to use HO-1 inhibitor to know pure effects of CO in the liver I/R
model in rats.
2. Abstract Results, line 7: should be “….of the adhesion molecule ICAM-1 in the
endothelial cells of liver.”
3. Materials and methods section: liver NF-#B activation:15mg protein was used?
4. Why the authors design the time point of CORM-2 treatment at the time of
reperfusion, not at the time of ischemia?
5. Ref. 25: incomplete reference.
Level of interest: An article of limited interest
Quality of written English: Needs some language corrections before being
published
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-10-42 (2010)

Reviewer's report
Title:Carbon monoxide-Releasing Molecule-2 (CORM-2) attenuates acute
hepatic ischemia reperfusion injury in rats
Version: 1Date:20 January 2010
Reviewer: Sarah Hosgood
Reviewer's report:
Major compulsory revisions
1: This manuscript presents very clear and concise results. However, I suggest
that more detail given to the statistical analysis. The Kruskal-Wallis test was used
to compared groups. I assume that the P value stated in the legends (<0.05)
related to the post test? I think a more detailed explanation of the statistics and
inclusion of the P value in the text of the results section is needed.
2: The first paragraph of the discussion states that CORM-2 reduced
ROS-mediated hepatic ischemia reperfusion injury. This is not completely
accurate as no measures of oxidative damage were performed.
Minor essential revisions
1: In figure 3b, is the level of caspase 3 significantly lower in the CORM 2 group?
The * is missing
Discretionary Revisions
1: Measures of oxidatived damaged would strengthen this manuscript, however I
do not feel that this is essential given the substantial range of parameters
measured.
2: I assume that all rats survived during the 6 hour reperfusion perfusion period?
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-10-42 (2010)

Reviewer's report
Title:Carbon monoxide-Releasing Molecule-2 (CORM-2) attenuates acute
hepatic ischemia reperfusion injury in rats
Version: 2Date:24 February 2010
Reviewer: Sarah Hosgood
Reviewer's report:
I am satisfied that the authors have addressed all the comments and have
revised the manuscript accordingly.
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-10-42 (2010)

Reviewer's report
Title:Carbon monoxide-Releasing Molecule-2 (CORM-2) attenuates acute
hepatic ischemia reperfusion injury in rats
Version: 2Date:9 March 2010
Reviewer: Bingwei Sun
Reviewer's report:
In this manuscript the authors describe the effect of a CO-releasing substance on
hepatic I/Ri in a rat model. The authors study the serum damage markers AST
and ALT, liver histology score, TUNEL-scoring of apoptotic cells, NF-#B-activity
in nuclear liver extracts, and hepatic neutrophil infiltration. They also monitor the
change of serum levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines TNF-# and IL-6. This study
seems to be well performed, the methods are adequate. The reason for the study
seems sound. The conclusions seem to be relevant and the literature covers the
subject. If it is felt to be within the remit of the BMC Gastroenterology, my
recommendation would be to accept without further revision.
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-10-41 (2010)

Reviewer's report
Title:An unusual association of diffuse adenomyomatosis with dysplastic
adenoma in chronic calculous cholecystitis: Case report.
Version: 1Date:30 January 2010
Reviewer: Luca Pilloni
Reviewer's report:
Minor Essential Revisions
The authors should better argue in the test the relevance of immunoistochemical
data and discuss the value of immuohistochemistry, including the suggested
relative jet proposed reference
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'