Reviewer's report
Title:Small intestinal bacterial overgrowth in irritable bowel syndrome: are there
any predictors?
Version: 1Date:29 July 2009
Reviewer: Philippe Ducrotte
Reviewer's report:
The topic of the Reddymasu's paper is interesting because it is a very important
question to know whether some IBS patients have to be treated with antibiotics.
The authors of this paper report the results of a substantial number of patients
and the paper is well written.
However, the paper cannot be accepted in the current form and the author must
answer to the following questions :
- were the 98 patients consecutive or not ? Did the author refer for a breath test
any patient seeking medical advice for IBS ?
- many patients (more than 35 %) were treated by opiates. This is very unusual in
IBS. The author have to explain why they receive this treatment.
- the authors report that SIBO was more frequent in patients older than 55. Due
to the lack of control group, it is very difficult to interpret this association. The
question is wether the high frequency of SIBO related to IBS or is it rather due to
age ? The authors have to comment this point and outline this major weakness of
their study.
Level of interest: An article whose findings are important to those with closely
related research interests
Quality of written English: Acceptable
Statistical review: No, the manuscript does not need to be seen by a
statistician.
Declaration of competing interests:
I have no competing interest
Reviewer's report
Title:Small intestinal bacterial overgrowth in irritable bowel syndrome: are there
any predictors?
Version: 1Date:29 July 2009
Reviewer: Philippe Ducrotte
Reviewer's report:
The topic of the Reddymasu's paper is interesting because it is a very important
question to know whether some IBS patients have to be treated with antibiotics.
The authors of this paper report the results of a substantial number of patients
and the paper is well written.
However, the paper cannot be accepted in the current form and the author must
answer to the following questions :
- were the 98 patients consecutive or not ? Did the author refer for a breath test
any patient seeking medical advice for IBS ?
- many patients (more than 35 %) were treated by opiates. This is very unusual in
IBS. The author have to explain why they receive this treatment.
- the authors report that SIBO was more frequent in patients older than 55. Due
to the lack of control group, it is very difficult to interpret this association. The
question is wether the high frequency of SIBO related to IBS or is it rather due to
age ? The authors have to comment this point and outline this major weakness of
their study.
Level of interest: An article whose findings are important to those with closely
related research interests
Quality of written English: Acceptable
Statistical review: No, the manuscript does not need to be seen by a
statistician.
Declaration of competing interests:
I have no competing interest
Please review this paper.
user
Reviewer's report
Title:Small intestinal bacterial overgrowth in irritable bowel syndrome: are there
any predictors?
Version: 1Date:29 July 2009
Reviewer: Philippe Ducrotte
Reviewer's report:
The topic of the Reddymasu's paper is interesting because it is a very important
question to know whether some IBS patients have to be treated with antibiotics.
The authors of this paper report the results of a substantial number of patients
and the paper is well written.
However, the paper cannot be accepted in the current form and the author must
answer to the following questions :
- were the 98 patients consecutive or not ? Did the author refer for a breath test
any patient seeking medical advice for IBS ?
- many patients (more than 35 %) were treated by opiates. This is very unusual in
IBS. The author have to explain why they receive this treatment.
- the authors report that SIBO was more frequent in patients older than 55. Due
to the lack of control group, it is very difficult to interpret this association. The
question is wether the high frequency of SIBO related to IBS or is it rather due to
age ? The authors have to comment this point and outline this major weakness of
their study.
Level of interest: An article whose findings are important to those with closely
related research interests
Quality of written English: Acceptable
Statistical review: No, the manuscript does not need to be seen by a
statistician.
Declaration of competing interests:
I have no competing interest
assistant