Review for 10.1186/s12876-023-02753-z (2023)

Reviewer’s report
Title: 
Using machine learning methods to predict 28-day mortality in patients
with hepatic encephalopathy
Version: 
0 
Date: 
18 Sep 2022
Reviewer's report:
The authors have conducted an interesting study to predict the 28-day mortality
of patients with hepatic encephalopathy from Medical Information Mart for
Intensive Care (MIMIC)-IV database. I have following comments regarding the
manuscript:
1. I presume that all the patients had underlying liver cirrhosis that led to hepatic
encephalopathy. However, it is advisable to clearly mention it in the Methods
section.
2. AKI was one of the parameters used in the NNET model. Please define and
compare AKI between the survived and expired groups and mention in Table 1.
3. Please compare the etiology of underlying liver cirrhosis between the survived
and expired groups.
4. Please compare the incidence of ascites between the survived and expired
groups and whether it can be included in the NNET model.
5. Please add in the limitations of this study that majority of the patients were
Whites. Hence, the results may not be extrapolated to other populations such as
Asians.
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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?
Yes
Are the methods sufficiently described to allow the study to be repeated?
Yes
Is the use of statistics and treatment of uncertainties appropriate?
Yes
Is the presentation of the work clear?
Yes
Are the images in this manuscript (including electrophoretic gels and blots) free
from apparent manipulation?
Yes