Reviewer's report
Title:Short versus standard treatment with Pegylated interferon alfa-2a plus
ribavirin in patients with hepatitis C virus genotype 2 or 3: the CLEO trial.
Version: 1Date:1 September 2009
Reviewer: Piero Almasio
Reviewer's report:
The paper of Mecenate et al. addresses an important issue of treatment of
HCV-related disease: they assessed if a shorter duration of therapy (12 weeks) is
equivalent to standard schedule (24 weeks) in geno 2 and 3 patients. The final
results demonstrate that in subjects with an RVR (HCV-RNA clearance after one
month of therapy) the rate of SVR is equivalent in the two groups. The paper,
although is partially confirmatory of previous studies, is well designed, with
adequate sample size.
Major comments.
# The main basal features of all included patients should be described in a
separated table.
# Another table should describe the comparison between patients with or without
RVR (including statistical analysis).
# The “per protocol” analysis should be avoided in every part of the paper.
# A table with univariate analysis of SVR should be included (i.e. SVR vs no
SVR). After that another table with multiple logistic regression analysis with OR
(plus 95% C.I.) and beta coefficients should also be included.
# All percentage should be given with one decimal
# The continuous variables with normal distribution should be analyzed with
parametric tests
# The source of infection is a relevant information that should be given
# Figure 2 can be omitted
Minor comments
The English language needs a deep revision
Level of interest: An article whose findings are important to those with closely
related research interests
Quality of written English: Needs some language corrections before being
published
Statistical review: Yes, and I have assessed the statistics in my report.
Declaration of competing interests:
I declare that I have no competing interests' below
Reviewer's report
Title:Short versus standard treatment with Pegylated interferon alfa-2a plus
ribavirin in patients with hepatitis C virus genotype 2 or 3: the CLEO trial.
Version: 1Date:1 September 2009
Reviewer: Piero Almasio
Reviewer's report:
The paper of Mecenate et al. addresses an important issue of treatment of
HCV-related disease: they assessed if a shorter duration of therapy (12 weeks) is
equivalent to standard schedule (24 weeks) in geno 2 and 3 patients. The final
results demonstrate that in subjects with an RVR (HCV-RNA clearance after one
month of therapy) the rate of SVR is equivalent in the two groups. The paper,
although is partially confirmatory of previous studies, is well designed, with
adequate sample size.
Major comments.
# The main basal features of all included patients should be described in a
separated table.
# Another table should describe the comparison between patients with or without
RVR (including statistical analysis).
# The “per protocol” analysis should be avoided in every part of the paper.
# A table with univariate analysis of SVR should be included (i.e. SVR vs no
SVR). After that another table with multiple logistic regression analysis with OR
(plus 95% C.I.) and beta coefficients should also be included.
# All percentage should be given with one decimal
# The continuous variables with normal distribution should be analyzed with
parametric tests
# The source of infection is a relevant information that should be given
# Figure 2 can be omitted
Minor comments
The English language needs a deep revision
Level of interest: An article whose findings are important to those with closely
related research interests
Quality of written English: Needs some language corrections before being
published
Statistical review: Yes, and I have assessed the statistics in my report.
Declaration of competing interests:
I declare that I have no competing interests' below
Please review this paper.
user
Reviewer's report
Title:Short versus standard treatment with Pegylated interferon alfa-2a plus
ribavirin in patients with hepatitis C virus genotype 2 or 3: the CLEO trial.
Version: 1Date:1 September 2009
Reviewer: Piero Almasio
Reviewer's report:
The paper of Mecenate et al. addresses an important issue of treatment of
HCV-related disease: they assessed if a shorter duration of therapy (12 weeks) is
equivalent to standard schedule (24 weeks) in geno 2 and 3 patients. The final
results demonstrate that in subjects with an RVR (HCV-RNA clearance after one
month of therapy) the rate of SVR is equivalent in the two groups. The paper,
although is partially confirmatory of previous studies, is well designed, with
adequate sample size.
Major comments.
# The main basal features of all included patients should be described in a
separated table.
# Another table should describe the comparison between patients with or without
RVR (including statistical analysis).
# The “per protocol” analysis should be avoided in every part of the paper.
# A table with univariate analysis of SVR should be included (i.e. SVR vs no
SVR). After that another table with multiple logistic regression analysis with OR
(plus 95% C.I.) and beta coefficients should also be included.
# All percentage should be given with one decimal
# The continuous variables with normal distribution should be analyzed with
parametric tests
# The source of infection is a relevant information that should be given
# Figure 2 can be omitted
Minor comments
The English language needs a deep revision
Level of interest: An article whose findings are important to those with closely
related research interests
Quality of written English: Needs some language corrections before being
published
Statistical review: Yes, and I have assessed the statistics in my report.
Declaration of competing interests:
I declare that I have no competing interests' below
assistant