Review for 10.1186/s12876-016-0434-3 (2016)

Reviewer ’s report  
 
Title: Effect of Coexisting Diabetes Mellitus and Chronic Kidney Disease  on Mortality of 
Cirrhotic Patients with Esophageal Variceal Bleeding  
 
 
Version: 1 Date: 14 Dec 2015  
 
 
Reviewer: Avik  Majumdar  
 
 
Reviewer's report:  
 
The authors have made substant ial improvements to this manuscript.  Minor revisions only listed 
below.  
 
 
Minor Essential Revisions  
 
Line 72:  Suggest "with an annual mortality of 57%.  Nearly half theses deaths occur within 6 
weeks from the initial episode of bleeding  
 
Line 74: Suggest  a comma after "variceal bleeding"  
 
Line 95: Suggest replacing "were" with "have been"  
 
Line 97: Suggest replacing "was" with "has been reported as"  
 
Line 110: Suggest removing "that"  
 
Line 120: Suggest changing "the" to "a"  
 
Lind 164: "The mortality group s" does not clearly reference a group. Suggest replacing this with 
"HBV, CKD, HCC……were more common in non -survivors".  
 
Line 188: remove "the"  
 
Line 196: Suggest removing "unlike specific diseases"  
 
Line 209: Suggest replacing "It" with "We"  
 
Line 210: Ple ase revise this sentence as the data does not show the effect of these treatment 
advances.  I would suggest replacing the phrase "because of" with something like "perhaps due 
to" and adding in references for the survival benefit of these interventions.  
 
 
Line 216: Suggest "The inpatient bleeding rate……has been reported as"  
 
Line 219: Replace "appeared" to "appears"  
 
Line 220: Use bleeding (and re -bleeding) instead of bleed (and re -bleed) in this sentence  
 
 
Line 235: Suggest changing to "implied that CKD ma y be associated with poor clearance of 
circulatory neurotoxic substances…."  
 
Line 250: Suggest "There is increased bleeding tendency due to uremic platelet…."  
 
Line 258: This paragraph does not seem relevant.  I would suggest removing it.  
 
Discretionary Re vision: Nil  
 
Level of Interest: An article of limited interest  
 
Quality of Written English: This is much improved from the previous versions of this 
manuscript.  There are still a number of minor revisions that need to occur.  
 
Quality of Figures: Acceptabl e 
 
Statistical Review  
- Yes, and I have assessed the statistics in my report.  
 
Declaration of Competing Interests  
None  
 
What Next  
- Accept after minor essential revisions (which the authors can be trusted to make)  
 
Are the methods appropriate and well 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.  
 
No 
Are the conclusions drawn ade quately 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 manuscript or would you recommend an 
additional statistical review?  
If an additional statistical  review is recommended, please specify 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 y ears received reimbursements, fees, funding, or salary from 
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 that may i n 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 com peting 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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on my report to the authors and, if the manuscript is accepted for publication, my named report  
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I agree to the open peer review policy of the journal