Reviewer ’s report  
 
Title: Characteristics of Aerobic Vaginitis a mong Women in Xi ’an district: A Hospital -based 
Study  
 
Version: 0 Date: 25 Jan 2020  
 
Reviewer's report:  
 
This manuscript discusses the characteristics of simple and mixed aerobic vaginitis in women 
from Xi'an district. I appreciated the overall quality of the study and the conclusions appear well 
supported by the reported data.  
 
However, some points should be further investigated by the Authors, as reported below:  
 
1) Style and syntax require editing/correction throughout the manuscript.  
 
2) Did the authors calculate the sample size before starting their st udy? Otherwise, the 
authors should perform a post -hoc calculation of the power of their study, in order to ensure 
adequate significance of their results.  
 
3) Inclusion and exclusion criteria are not clearly described. I recommend improving this 
section.  
 
4) I truly think that the authors should discuss in a wider way the clinical characteristics of 
aerobic vaginitis and its association to vaginal candidiasis, trichomonas vaginitis and bacterial 
vaginosis. Some articles may offer an appropriate overview about  the topic: PMID: 25568514; 
PMID: 31694024.  
 
5) Another interesting point to discuss is the association between aerobic vaginitis, 
bacterial vaginosis and squamous intraepithelial lesion of low grade. In this regard, recent studies 
showed that aerobic vagin itis is very common in these women but is not an indicator of HPV 
infection. Furthermore, an adequate treatment of aerobic vaginitis would decrease the frequency 
of squamous intraepithelial lesions of low grade and number of precancerous lesions. I 
recomme nd better discussing this point mentioning the recent literature about the topic: PMID: 
24341052; PMID: 26810061; PMID: 29787011.  
 
6) I recommend checking references and formatting them according to the Journal's guidelines.  
 
Are the methods appropriate and well described?  
If not, please specify what is required in your comments to the authors.  
 
No 
 
Does the work include the necessary controls?  
If not, please specify which controls are required in your comments to the aut hors.  
Yes 
 
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 a dditional 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:  
 
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 years received reimbursements, fees, 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 p ublication 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 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.  
 
I declare that I have no competing interests.  
 
I agree to the open peer review policy of the journal. I understand 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 Acces s 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 in cluded as confidential comments 
to the editors, which will not be published.  
 
I agree to the open peer review policy of the journal