Review for 10.1186/s12876-019-0937-9 (2019)

Reviewer ’s report  
 
Title: Plasma levels of TNF -α, IL-6, IFN -γ, IL-12, IL -17, IL-22, and IL -23 in Achalasia, 
Eosinophilic Esophagitis (EoE), and Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease (GERD)  
 
Version: 1 Date: 04 Sep 2018  
 
Reviewer: Michael F. Vaezi  
 
Reviewer's report:  
 
Please include all comments for the authors in this box rather than uploading your report as an 
attachment. Please only upload as attachments annotated versions of manuscripts, graphs, 
supporting materials or other aspects of your report which cannot be included in a text format.  
 
The authors have addressed all my concerns except the la st two which are very important instead 
of providing excuses for why they can't provide this important inf ormation I suggest they 
provide a better explanation and analysis.  
 
 
1. Lack of a control group is a big issue ---you can't use someone else's control data for your 
own!  
 
2. Can the authors assess the IL based on reported weight loss to see if any signals? IL-6 has 
been associated with cachexia and wt loss in cancer population in many studies.  
 
 
"This is beyond the aims of our study but would an interesting topic for future research" is not a 
good enough reason not to look at their data -- 
 
 
 
Are the methods appro priate 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 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 ad ditional statistical review is recommended, please speci fy what aspects require further 
assessment in your comments to the editors.  
 
Not relevant to this manuscript  
 
Quality of written English  
Please indicate the quality of language in the manuscript:  
 
Not su itable for publication unless extensively edited  
 
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 any 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 recei ved 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.  
 
none  
 
I agree to the open peer r eview 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, my named report 
including any attachments I upload will be posted on the website along with the authors'  
responses. I agree for my report to be made available under an Open Access Creative Commons 
CC-BY license ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ ). I understand that any comments 
which I do not wish to be included in my named report can be included a s confidential comments 
to the editor s, which will not be published.  
 
I agree to the open peer review policy of the journal