Reviewer's report
Title:Serum procalcitonin and CRP levels in non-alcoholic fatty liver disease
Version: 1Date:17 September 2008
Reviewer: Hans Spangenberg
Reviewer's report:
The paper by Oruc et al. examines for the first time the procalcitonin levels in
patients with NAFLD. As an additional marker thy investigate CRP. Interestingly
they found no correlation of procalcitonin with steatohepatitis and/or steatosis,
however for CRP a statistical significant difference between healthy controls and
patient with histological proven steatohepatitis/steatosis was observed.
A few comments that should be addressed by the authors prior to publication.
1. The healthy controls are not well describe. They should be added in table 1
and all makers that are addressed for the NAFLD-group should be included.
2. 47 patients with NAFLD are analysed not 50, this should be corrected.
3. How was an infection in the patients excluded? For most of the papers in
patients with metabolic syndrome hs-CRP was used as a marker, why not in this
study?
4. The BMI is higher in the steatosis group. Does the BMI per se influence the
level of CRP?
5. In table 3 the NAFLD-group is not differentiated into steatohepatitis and
steatosis. This should be adopted.
In general, the authors should rule out by multiple regression analysis that any
other maker than the difference between steatosis/steatohepatitis and healthy
controls is responsible for their explanation. Furthermore it should be discussed
in more detail why the steatosis group has lower CRP levels than the
steatohepatitis group. One would assume that inflammation in the liver triggers
CRP. At last it would be interesting to see if the authors can also detect CRP and
procalitonin in ther liver histologies and this finding could be correlatd with the
serum levels.
Level of interest: An article of limited interest
Quality of written English: Acceptable
Statistical review: Yes, but I do not feel adequately qualified to assess the
statistics.
Declaration of competing interests:
I declare that I have no competing interests
Reviewer's report
Title:Serum procalcitonin and CRP levels in non-alcoholic fatty liver disease
Version: 1Date:17 September 2008
Reviewer: Hans Spangenberg
Reviewer's report:
The paper by Oruc et al. examines for the first time the procalcitonin levels in
patients with NAFLD. As an additional marker thy investigate CRP. Interestingly
they found no correlation of procalcitonin with steatohepatitis and/or steatosis,
however for CRP a statistical significant difference between healthy controls and
patient with histological proven steatohepatitis/steatosis was observed.
A few comments that should be addressed by the authors prior to publication.
1. The healthy controls are not well describe. They should be added in table 1
and all makers that are addressed for the NAFLD-group should be included.
2. 47 patients with NAFLD are analysed not 50, this should be corrected.
3. How was an infection in the patients excluded? For most of the papers in
patients with metabolic syndrome hs-CRP was used as a marker, why not in this
study?
4. The BMI is higher in the steatosis group. Does the BMI per se influence the
level of CRP?
5. In table 3 the NAFLD-group is not differentiated into steatohepatitis and
steatosis. This should be adopted.
In general, the authors should rule out by multiple regression analysis that any
other maker than the difference between steatosis/steatohepatitis and healthy
controls is responsible for their explanation. Furthermore it should be discussed
in more detail why the steatosis group has lower CRP levels than the
steatohepatitis group. One would assume that inflammation in the liver triggers
CRP. At last it would be interesting to see if the authors can also detect CRP and
procalitonin in ther liver histologies and this finding could be correlatd with the
serum levels.
Level of interest: An article of limited interest
Quality of written English: Acceptable
Statistical review: Yes, but I do not feel adequately qualified to assess the
statistics.
Declaration of competing interests:
I declare that I have no competing interests
Please review this paper.
user
Reviewer's report
Title:Serum procalcitonin and CRP levels in non-alcoholic fatty liver disease
Version: 1Date:17 September 2008
Reviewer: Hans Spangenberg
Reviewer's report:
The paper by Oruc et al. examines for the first time the procalcitonin levels in
patients with NAFLD. As an additional marker thy investigate CRP. Interestingly
they found no correlation of procalcitonin with steatohepatitis and/or steatosis,
however for CRP a statistical significant difference between healthy controls and
patient with histological proven steatohepatitis/steatosis was observed.
A few comments that should be addressed by the authors prior to publication.
1. The healthy controls are not well describe. They should be added in table 1
and all makers that are addressed for the NAFLD-group should be included.
2. 47 patients with NAFLD are analysed not 50, this should be corrected.
3. How was an infection in the patients excluded? For most of the papers in
patients with metabolic syndrome hs-CRP was used as a marker, why not in this
study?
4. The BMI is higher in the steatosis group. Does the BMI per se influence the
level of CRP?
5. In table 3 the NAFLD-group is not differentiated into steatohepatitis and
steatosis. This should be adopted.
In general, the authors should rule out by multiple regression analysis that any
other maker than the difference between steatosis/steatohepatitis and healthy
controls is responsible for their explanation. Furthermore it should be discussed
in more detail why the steatosis group has lower CRP levels than the
steatohepatitis group. One would assume that inflammation in the liver triggers
CRP. At last it would be interesting to see if the authors can also detect CRP and
procalitonin in ther liver histologies and this finding could be correlatd with the
serum levels.
Level of interest: An article of limited interest
Quality of written English: Acceptable
Statistical review: Yes, but I do not feel adequately qualified to assess the
statistics.
Declaration of competing interests:
I declare that I have no competing interests
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