Review for 10.1186/s12876-023-02730-6 (2023)

Reviewer’s report
Title: 
Impact of comorbidities on hospital mortality in patients with acute
pancreatitis. A population-based study of 110,021 patients
Version: 
1 
Date: 
22 Jan 2023
Reviewer's report:
PEER REVIEWER ASSESSMENTS: 
OBJECTIVE - Full research articles: is there a clear objective that addresses a
testable research question(s) (brief or other article types: is there a clear
objective)?
Yes - there is a clear objective
DESIGN - Is the current approach (including controls and analysis protocols)
appropriate for the objective?
No - there are major issues
EXECUTION - Are the experiments and analyses performed with technical rigor
to allow confidence in the results?
No - there are minor issues
STATISTICS - Is the use of statistics in the manuscript appropriate?
Yes - appropriate statistical analyses have been used in the study
INTERPRETATION - Is the current interpretation/discussion of the results
reasonable and not overstated?
No - there are minor issues
OVERALL MANUSCRIPT POTENTIAL - Is the current version of this work
technically sound? If not, can revisions be made to make the work technically
sound?
Maybe - with major revisions
PEER REVIEWER COMMENTS: 
GENERAL COMMENTS: The study addressed an important research questions.
Stats was appropriate. The database the authors used is new and I am not aware
of publications showing its validity.
REQUESTED REVISIONS: 
1. Page 5, line 3: It is highly uncommon to talk about prevalence of an acute
disease. Typically, it is incidence.
2. Please provide data on validity of the ICD codes for pancreatitis in the used
database. A reference to a publication in English would be appreciated.
3. The use of ICD codes to identify acute pancreatitis has it limitations Please
discuss in the context of PMID: 30287807.
4. Inclusion of secondary diagnosis of AP is highly uncommon and it
inflates/skews the estimates.
5. Please specify the algorithm used to identify pancreatic necrosis and
pancreatic infection in your administrative database.
6. Please justify the cut-off used for age.
7. How can ICU admission/length of hospitalization be attributed to acute
pancreatitis if it was a secondary diagnosis?
8. How did the authors handled cases with the ICD code for chronic pancreatitis?
Declaration of competing interests
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paper?
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Is the study design appropriate to answer the research question (including the use
of appropriate controls), and are the conclusions supported by the evidence
presented?
No
Are the methods sufficiently described to allow the study to be repeated?
No
Is the use of statistics and treatment of uncertainties appropriate?
Yes
Is the presentation of the work clear?
No
Are the images in this manuscript (including electrophoretic gels and blots) free
from apparent manipulation?
Yes
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No