Reviewer's report 
 Gastrointestinal failure in intensive care: a retrospective clinical study in three different intensive care Title: 
units in Germany and Estonia. 
 5  18 May 2006 Version: Date: 
 Manu Malbrain Reviewer: 
Reviewer's report: 
------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 
Minor Essential Revisions (such as missing labels on figures, or the wrong use of a term, which the author can be trusted to correct) 
Comments 
We read with interest the revised manuscript by Reintam et al. We thank the authors for providing point by 
point answers to all of the reviewersâ €™ comments. We agree that the article has been substantially 
improved. 
Abstract 
p2, last sentence: change to: , and to determine its association with ICU mortalityâ € 
p2, line 6: retrospective analysis instead of assessment 
p2, line 17: please indicate which type of admission is associated with GIF 
p2, 4th line from bottom: development of GIF during ICU stay was an independent predictor p3, second last line. However, recent studiesâ €¦ 
p4, first line: and the development (instead of occurrence) of intraabdominal hypertension during ICU stay is 
an independent outcome predictor. 
P5, line 8 â €“ p8 line 2: do not start a sentence with a number 
P6 paragraph 4, line 3: the use of the word respectively does not make any sense here, please omit 
P8 line 5: omit in respective departments 
P9, line 1 please state for what patient profile the odds ratio is given medical or surgical? P9, line 3-5: rephrase provide values for PPV, NPV, sensitivity, specificity and accuracy. P9, last paragraph, I donâ €™t understand the meaning of adding subsequent variables into the multiple 
logistic regression model â €“ enter all variables that were higly significant p < 0.01 and see what comes out 
P10, first paragraph can be omitted 
P11, second paragraph, line 8: replace summed up to by was P13, please address the fact that APACHE II score was validated fro hospital mortality while ICU mortality 
was used in your study 
please expand abbreviations when used for the first time and then use abbreviations in a concise way 
throughout the manuscript 
eg p3 second paragraph line 5: GI failure; line 8: gastrointestinal failure, page 4 last line, etcâ €¦ â €“ replace 
by GIF! 
 Accept after minor essential revisions What next?: 
 An article of importance in its field Level of interest: 
 Needs some language corrections before being published Quality of written English: 
 No Statistical review: 
Declaration of competing interests: 
'I declare that I have no competing interests' 
Reviewer's report 
 Gastrointestinal failure in intensive care: a retrospective clinical study in three different intensive care Title: 
units in Germany and Estonia. 
 5  18 May 2006 Version: Date: 
 Manu Malbrain Reviewer: 
Reviewer's report: 
------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 
Minor Essential Revisions (such as missing labels on figures, or the wrong use of a term, which the author can be trusted to correct) 
Comments 
We read with interest the revised manuscript by Reintam et al. We thank the authors for providing point by 
point answers to all of the reviewersâ €™ comments. We agree that the article has been substantially 
improved. 
Abstract 
p2, last sentence: change to: , and to determine its association with ICU mortalityâ € 
p2, line 6: retrospective analysis instead of assessment 
p2, line 17: please indicate which type of admission is associated with GIF 
p2, 4th line from bottom: development of GIF during ICU stay was an independent predictor p3, second last line. However, recent studiesâ €¦ 
p4, first line: and the development (instead of occurrence) of intraabdominal hypertension during ICU stay is 
an independent outcome predictor. 
P5, line 8 â €“ p8 line 2: do not start a sentence with a number 
P6 paragraph 4, line 3: the use of the word respectively does not make any sense here, please omit 
P8 line 5: omit in respective departments 
P9, line 1 please state for what patient profile the odds ratio is given medical or surgical? P9, line 3-5: rephrase provide values for PPV, NPV, sensitivity, specificity and accuracy. P9, last paragraph, I donâ €™t understand the meaning of adding subsequent variables into the multiple 
logistic regression model â €“ enter all variables that were higly significant p < 0.01 and see what comes out 
P10, first paragraph can be omitted 
P11, second paragraph, line 8: replace summed up to by was P13, please address the fact that APACHE II score was validated fro hospital mortality while ICU mortality 
was used in your study 
please expand abbreviations when used for the first time and then use abbreviations in a concise way 
throughout the manuscript 
eg p3 second paragraph line 5: GI failure; line 8: gastrointestinal failure, page 4 last line, etcâ €¦ â €“ replace 
by GIF! 
 Accept after minor essential revisions What next?: 
 An article of importance in its field Level of interest: 
 Needs some language corrections before being published Quality of written English: 
 No Statistical review: 
Declaration of competing interests: 
'I declare that I have no competing interests' 
Please review this paper.
user
Reviewer's report 
 Gastrointestinal failure in intensive care: a retrospective clinical study in three different intensive care Title: 
units in Germany and Estonia. 
 5  18 May 2006 Version: Date: 
 Manu Malbrain Reviewer: 
Reviewer's report: 
------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 
Minor Essential Revisions (such as missing labels on figures, or the wrong use of a term, which the author can be trusted to correct) 
Comments 
We read with interest the revised manuscript by Reintam et al. We thank the authors for providing point by 
point answers to all of the reviewersâ €™ comments. We agree that the article has been substantially 
improved. 
Abstract 
p2, last sentence: change to: , and to determine its association with ICU mortalityâ € 
p2, line 6: retrospective analysis instead of assessment 
p2, line 17: please indicate which type of admission is associated with GIF 
p2, 4th line from bottom: development of GIF during ICU stay was an independent predictor p3, second last line. However, recent studiesâ €¦ 
p4, first line: and the development (instead of occurrence) of intraabdominal hypertension during ICU stay is 
an independent outcome predictor. 
P5, line 8 â €“ p8 line 2: do not start a sentence with a number 
P6 paragraph 4, line 3: the use of the word respectively does not make any sense here, please omit 
P8 line 5: omit in respective departments 
P9, line 1 please state for what patient profile the odds ratio is given medical or surgical? P9, line 3-5: rephrase provide values for PPV, NPV, sensitivity, specificity and accuracy. P9, last paragraph, I donâ €™t understand the meaning of adding subsequent variables into the multiple 
logistic regression model â €“ enter all variables that were higly significant p < 0.01 and see what comes out 
P10, first paragraph can be omitted 
P11, second paragraph, line 8: replace summed up to by was P13, please address the fact that APACHE II score was validated fro hospital mortality while ICU mortality 
was used in your study 
please expand abbreviations when used for the first time and then use abbreviations in a concise way 
throughout the manuscript 
eg p3 second paragraph line 5: GI failure; line 8: gastrointestinal failure, page 4 last line, etcâ €¦ â €“ replace 
by GIF! 
 Accept after minor essential revisions What next?: 
 An article of importance in its field Level of interest: 
 Needs some language corrections before being published Quality of written English: 
 No Statistical review: 
Declaration of competing interests: 
'I declare that I have no competing interests' 
assistant