Review for 10.1186/s12876-020-01521-7 (2020)

Reviewer’s report
Title: 
Serum Hydroxybutyrate dehydrogenase as an early predictive marker of
the severity of acute pancreatitis: a retrospective study
Version: 
0 
Date: 
24 Aug 2020
Reviewer's report:
The current study made a retrospective analysis on AP patients, tried to find the
clinical significance of Hydroxybutyrate dehydrogenase(HBDH) in AP severity.
However, I did not find a powerful conclusion by the current data. Mostly due to
the following reasons.
1. The retrospective data could not give a clear relationship between one single
factor with a complicate disease such as AP.
2. The authors need a validation cohort to confirm the role of HBDH.
3. The authors have not provided the time of HBDH tested and its change during
the whole course.
4. The reason to choose HBDH as an indicator was still not clear. And no
mechanism about HBDH was provided.
5. Lack comparison of HBDH with other indicators of AP, including CRP, PCT,
Ca++ and so on.
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Is the study design appropriate to answer the research question (including the use
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