Reviewer's report
Title:Gastrointestinal Flora and Gastrointestinal Status in Children with Autism --
Comparisons to Neurotypical Children and Correlation with Autism Severity
Version: 1Date:2 November 2010
Reviewer: Paul Ashwood
Reviewer's report:
Adams and colleagues seek to determine whether gastrointestinal flora and
gastrointestinal status in children with autism is different when compared with
controls. The experiments are well designed and have been performed on a
large number of children with autism. The data is new and interesting. The paper
is well written and requires few minor but important corrections.
The authors list controls as "neurotypicals" what is the meaning of this term? It
has been argued by many that the neurons of children with autism are typical, or
at least not different from controls and it is the synaptic connections that are
altered. "Neurotypical" is not a valid term and should be removed from the title
and text. Other information regarding the controls should be provided such as
whether they are siblings of the children with autism.
The first paragraph of the discussion stating that gastrointestinal symptoms are
causal for autism is over-reaching. Such a claim cannot be made on the basis of
the data presented here, nor on previous published studies. However, this work
provides new information that is worthy of follow-up studies.
How many children with autism were on some form of dieatry intervention?
These would be informative data.
No gastrointestinal symptoms were present in the control group whereas there
were a number of gastrointestinal symptoms in the children with autism. In the
discussion these differences should be noted. In future studies a group of
controls with similar gastrointestinal symptoms to the children with autism should
be included for comparison.
Level of interest: An article of importance in its field
Quality of written English: Acceptable
Statistical review: No, the manuscript does not need to be seen by a
statistician.
Declaration of competing interests:
I declare that I have no competing interests
Reviewer's report
Title:Gastrointestinal Flora and Gastrointestinal Status in Children with Autism --
Comparisons to Neurotypical Children and Correlation with Autism Severity
Version: 1Date:2 November 2010
Reviewer: Paul Ashwood
Reviewer's report:
Adams and colleagues seek to determine whether gastrointestinal flora and
gastrointestinal status in children with autism is different when compared with
controls. The experiments are well designed and have been performed on a
large number of children with autism. The data is new and interesting. The paper
is well written and requires few minor but important corrections.
The authors list controls as "neurotypicals" what is the meaning of this term? It
has been argued by many that the neurons of children with autism are typical, or
at least not different from controls and it is the synaptic connections that are
altered. "Neurotypical" is not a valid term and should be removed from the title
and text. Other information regarding the controls should be provided such as
whether they are siblings of the children with autism.
The first paragraph of the discussion stating that gastrointestinal symptoms are
causal for autism is over-reaching. Such a claim cannot be made on the basis of
the data presented here, nor on previous published studies. However, this work
provides new information that is worthy of follow-up studies.
How many children with autism were on some form of dieatry intervention?
These would be informative data.
No gastrointestinal symptoms were present in the control group whereas there
were a number of gastrointestinal symptoms in the children with autism. In the
discussion these differences should be noted. In future studies a group of
controls with similar gastrointestinal symptoms to the children with autism should
be included for comparison.
Level of interest: An article of importance in its field
Quality of written English: Acceptable
Statistical review: No, the manuscript does not need to be seen by a
statistician.
Declaration of competing interests:
I declare that I have no competing interests
Please review this paper.
user
Reviewer's report
Title:Gastrointestinal Flora and Gastrointestinal Status in Children with Autism --
Comparisons to Neurotypical Children and Correlation with Autism Severity
Version: 1Date:2 November 2010
Reviewer: Paul Ashwood
Reviewer's report:
Adams and colleagues seek to determine whether gastrointestinal flora and
gastrointestinal status in children with autism is different when compared with
controls. The experiments are well designed and have been performed on a
large number of children with autism. The data is new and interesting. The paper
is well written and requires few minor but important corrections.
The authors list controls as "neurotypicals" what is the meaning of this term? It
has been argued by many that the neurons of children with autism are typical, or
at least not different from controls and it is the synaptic connections that are
altered. "Neurotypical" is not a valid term and should be removed from the title
and text. Other information regarding the controls should be provided such as
whether they are siblings of the children with autism.
The first paragraph of the discussion stating that gastrointestinal symptoms are
causal for autism is over-reaching. Such a claim cannot be made on the basis of
the data presented here, nor on previous published studies. However, this work
provides new information that is worthy of follow-up studies.
How many children with autism were on some form of dieatry intervention?
These would be informative data.
No gastrointestinal symptoms were present in the control group whereas there
were a number of gastrointestinal symptoms in the children with autism. In the
discussion these differences should be noted. In future studies a group of
controls with similar gastrointestinal symptoms to the children with autism should
be included for comparison.
Level of interest: An article of importance in its field
Quality of written English: Acceptable
Statistical review: No, the manuscript does not need to be seen by a
statistician.
Declaration of competing interests:
I declare that I have no competing interests
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