Reviewer's report
Title:Lack of evidence of viral reactivation in HBsAg-negative HBcAb-positive
and HCV patients undergoing immunosuppressive therapy for psoriasis.
Version:2Date:21 October 2014
Reviewer: mauro vigan&ograve;
Reviewer's report:
In this article Morisco et al tried to evidence the lack of viral reactivation in
HBsAg-negative/antiHBc-positive patients and in HCVAb-positive patients
undergoing immunosuppressive therapy for psoriasis. The issue of viral
reactivation in patients undergoing immunosuppression is relevant and the
end-points are clear.
Major concerns:
1) The methods used for monitoring patients were not standardized, and
therefore the paper is difficult to interpret or use as guidelines. It is unclear
whether there was a specific protocol for laboratory testing during follow-up or if
this was performed randomly at different time points. It appears more likely that
this was a retrospective study where serological tests were not available for all
patients nor at a defined timing.
2) I suggest to merge data of anti HBc-positive with antiHBc-positive plus anti
HBs-positive patients
3) The different kind of therapies used, given the different immunosuppressive
potential, may have affected the results
4) Which HBV DNA testing was used in the study?
5) Do you have any data on anti-HBs titers during follow up?
6) In the paragraph with the definition of HBV reactivation the sentence for
HBsAg-positive should be deleted as none of the patients were HBsAg-positive
7) It is not clear whether the data are related to all patients that are still on
treatment
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:Lack of evidence of viral reactivation in HBsAg-negative HBcAb-positive
and HCV patients undergoing immunosuppressive therapy for psoriasis.
Version:2Date:21 October 2014
Reviewer: mauro vigan&ograve;
Reviewer's report:
In this article Morisco et al tried to evidence the lack of viral reactivation in
HBsAg-negative/antiHBc-positive patients and in HCVAb-positive patients
undergoing immunosuppressive therapy for psoriasis. The issue of viral
reactivation in patients undergoing immunosuppression is relevant and the
end-points are clear.
Major concerns:
1) The methods used for monitoring patients were not standardized, and
therefore the paper is difficult to interpret or use as guidelines. It is unclear
whether there was a specific protocol for laboratory testing during follow-up or if
this was performed randomly at different time points. It appears more likely that
this was a retrospective study where serological tests were not available for all
patients nor at a defined timing.
2) I suggest to merge data of anti HBc-positive with antiHBc-positive plus anti
HBs-positive patients
3) The different kind of therapies used, given the different immunosuppressive
potential, may have affected the results
4) Which HBV DNA testing was used in the study?
5) Do you have any data on anti-HBs titers during follow up?
6) In the paragraph with the definition of HBV reactivation the sentence for
HBsAg-positive should be deleted as none of the patients were HBsAg-positive
7) It is not clear whether the data are related to all patients that are still on
treatment
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:Lack of evidence of viral reactivation in HBsAg-negative HBcAb-positive
and HCV patients undergoing immunosuppressive therapy for psoriasis.
Version:2Date:21 October 2014
Reviewer: mauro vigan&ograve;
Reviewer's report:
In this article Morisco et al tried to evidence the lack of viral reactivation in
HBsAg-negative/antiHBc-positive patients and in HCVAb-positive patients
undergoing immunosuppressive therapy for psoriasis. The issue of viral
reactivation in patients undergoing immunosuppression is relevant and the
end-points are clear.
Major concerns:
1) The methods used for monitoring patients were not standardized, and
therefore the paper is difficult to interpret or use as guidelines. It is unclear
whether there was a specific protocol for laboratory testing during follow-up or if
this was performed randomly at different time points. It appears more likely that
this was a retrospective study where serological tests were not available for all
patients nor at a defined timing.
2) I suggest to merge data of anti HBc-positive with antiHBc-positive plus anti
HBs-positive patients
3) The different kind of therapies used, given the different immunosuppressive
potential, may have affected the results
4) Which HBV DNA testing was used in the study?
5) Do you have any data on anti-HBs titers during follow up?
6) In the paragraph with the definition of HBV reactivation the sentence for
HBsAg-positive should be deleted as none of the patients were HBsAg-positive
7) It is not clear whether the data are related to all patients that are still on
treatment
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
assistant