Reviewer's report
Title:Mini-Mental State Examination in patients with hepatic encephalopathy and
liver cirrhosis. A prospective, quantified electroencephalography study.
Version: 1Date:21 February 2013
Reviewer: George Therapondos
Reviewer's report:
This is a well written manuscript that addresses an interesting question about
hepatic encephalopathy. It includes a reasonably large cohort of patients from an
academic center and the data are detailed and appropriately analyzed.
The conclusions are supported by the data.
Major compulsory revisions:
None
Minor essential revisions:
The authors acknowledge that there is no gold standard for the diagnosis of
minimal hepatic encephalopathy. However, their use of EEG in defining minimal
HE makes the reader think that this is universally accepted. I would like to see a
clarification or an addition to the discussion section that addresses the fact that
the minimal HE group in their study may not necessarily be accurate. Overall,
this point however, does not change the conclusions of the study which I believe
are accurate.
Page 6, line 4: Missing 's' from Patient
Page 7, EEG analysis: Iceland instead of Island
I do not think the ROC curves need to be shown- the explanation ion the results
section is adequate.
It may be useful to comment that even when results were found to be statistically
significant, the numeric difference between MMSE scores was small and unlikely
to be clinically useful.
Level of interest: An article of importance in its field
Quality of written English: Acceptable
Statistical review: Yes, and I have assessed the statistics in my report.
Declaration of competing interests:
I declare that I have no competing interests
Reviewer's report
Title:Mini-Mental State Examination in patients with hepatic encephalopathy and
liver cirrhosis. A prospective, quantified electroencephalography study.
Version: 1Date:21 February 2013
Reviewer: George Therapondos
Reviewer's report:
This is a well written manuscript that addresses an interesting question about
hepatic encephalopathy. It includes a reasonably large cohort of patients from an
academic center and the data are detailed and appropriately analyzed.
The conclusions are supported by the data.
Major compulsory revisions:
None
Minor essential revisions:
The authors acknowledge that there is no gold standard for the diagnosis of
minimal hepatic encephalopathy. However, their use of EEG in defining minimal
HE makes the reader think that this is universally accepted. I would like to see a
clarification or an addition to the discussion section that addresses the fact that
the minimal HE group in their study may not necessarily be accurate. Overall,
this point however, does not change the conclusions of the study which I believe
are accurate.
Page 6, line 4: Missing 's' from Patient
Page 7, EEG analysis: Iceland instead of Island
I do not think the ROC curves need to be shown- the explanation ion the results
section is adequate.
It may be useful to comment that even when results were found to be statistically
significant, the numeric difference between MMSE scores was small and unlikely
to be clinically useful.
Level of interest: An article of importance in its field
Quality of written English: Acceptable
Statistical review: Yes, and I have assessed the statistics in my report.
Declaration of competing interests:
I declare that I have no competing interests
Please review this paper.
user
Reviewer's report
Title:Mini-Mental State Examination in patients with hepatic encephalopathy and
liver cirrhosis. A prospective, quantified electroencephalography study.
Version: 1Date:21 February 2013
Reviewer: George Therapondos
Reviewer's report:
This is a well written manuscript that addresses an interesting question about
hepatic encephalopathy. It includes a reasonably large cohort of patients from an
academic center and the data are detailed and appropriately analyzed.
The conclusions are supported by the data.
Major compulsory revisions:
None
Minor essential revisions:
The authors acknowledge that there is no gold standard for the diagnosis of
minimal hepatic encephalopathy. However, their use of EEG in defining minimal
HE makes the reader think that this is universally accepted. I would like to see a
clarification or an addition to the discussion section that addresses the fact that
the minimal HE group in their study may not necessarily be accurate. Overall,
this point however, does not change the conclusions of the study which I believe
are accurate.
Page 6, line 4: Missing 's' from Patient
Page 7, EEG analysis: Iceland instead of Island
I do not think the ROC curves need to be shown- the explanation ion the results
section is adequate.
It may be useful to comment that even when results were found to be statistically
significant, the numeric difference between MMSE scores was small and unlikely
to be clinically useful.
Level of interest: An article of importance in its field
Quality of written English: Acceptable
Statistical review: Yes, and I have assessed the statistics in my report.
Declaration of competing interests:
I declare that I have no competing interests
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