Reviewer's report
Title:Vertebral fractures in patients with inflammatory bowel disease compared
with healthy population
Version: 1Date:27 February 2012
Reviewer: Max Reinshagen
Reviewer's report:
This is an interesting study showing that the risk for vertebral fractures is 4 times
higher in patients with Crohn´s disease in comparison to an age-matched control
collective.
The new finding in this study is that low BMD and corticosteroid therapy was not
associated with an increased risk for vertebral fractures.
This is an interesting finding but in the control group there are no fractures below
the age of 40 years whereas in the CD group 66% of fractures occurs in that
subgroup.
1) Therefore Table 2 needs revision showing the subgroups of patients and
controls < 40 years and > years.
2) This point needs more discussion
3) The activity of CD is quite low in most patients in this study compared to most
studies published so far and the proportion of patients > 40 years is quite high.
This needs to be adressed to allow comparison to the already published data.
4) Since no apparent reason for increased fracture rate could be shown more
discussion regarding other possible (e.g. genetic causes) factors should be
included.
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:Vertebral fractures in patients with inflammatory bowel disease compared
with healthy population
Version: 1Date:27 February 2012
Reviewer: Max Reinshagen
Reviewer's report:
This is an interesting study showing that the risk for vertebral fractures is 4 times
higher in patients with Crohn´s disease in comparison to an age-matched control
collective.
The new finding in this study is that low BMD and corticosteroid therapy was not
associated with an increased risk for vertebral fractures.
This is an interesting finding but in the control group there are no fractures below
the age of 40 years whereas in the CD group 66% of fractures occurs in that
subgroup.
1) Therefore Table 2 needs revision showing the subgroups of patients and
controls < 40 years and > years.
2) This point needs more discussion
3) The activity of CD is quite low in most patients in this study compared to most
studies published so far and the proportion of patients > 40 years is quite high.
This needs to be adressed to allow comparison to the already published data.
4) Since no apparent reason for increased fracture rate could be shown more
discussion regarding other possible (e.g. genetic causes) factors should be
included.
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:Vertebral fractures in patients with inflammatory bowel disease compared
with healthy population
Version: 1Date:27 February 2012
Reviewer: Max Reinshagen
Reviewer's report:
This is an interesting study showing that the risk for vertebral fractures is 4 times
higher in patients with Crohn´s disease in comparison to an age-matched control
collective.
The new finding in this study is that low BMD and corticosteroid therapy was not
associated with an increased risk for vertebral fractures.
This is an interesting finding but in the control group there are no fractures below
the age of 40 years whereas in the CD group 66% of fractures occurs in that
subgroup.
1) Therefore Table 2 needs revision showing the subgroups of patients and
controls < 40 years and > years.
2) This point needs more discussion
3) The activity of CD is quite low in most patients in this study compared to most
studies published so far and the proportion of patients > 40 years is quite high.
This needs to be adressed to allow comparison to the already published data.
4) Since no apparent reason for increased fracture rate could be shown more
discussion regarding other possible (e.g. genetic causes) factors should be
included.
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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