Reviewer's report
Title:Alcohol consumption is associated with an increased risk of erosive
esophagitis and Barrett's epithelium in Japanese men
Version: 1Date:14 June 2008
Reviewer: Yoshihisa URITA
Reviewer's report:
Dear Dr. Tomoyuki Akiyama,
Your manuscript entitled “Alcohol consumption is associated with an increased
risk of erosive esophagitis and Barrett's epithelium in Japanese men” has been
reviewed. The authors conclude that alcohol consumption plays an important role
in the etiology of erosive esophagitis and Barrett's epithelium in Japanese men.
This manuscript is of enough interest and describes original work that merits its
publication in the Journal of MBC Gastroenterology . Although the work was of
good quality, the manuscript required some revisions as below;
1. There was no description of the reason that patients attended to the hospital
and underwent an upper endoscopic examination. In Japan, most of patients with
reflux esophagitis do not complain of typical GERD symptoms, including
heartburn and regurgitation, whereas some patients without erosive gastritis
have persistent heartburn. It is possible that heavy drinkers may be insensitive to
gastroesophageal reflex of gastric acid, resulting in taking a greater amount of
ethanol.
2. Authors should describe the mean value of age, and BMI, and the rate of
subjects with smoking habit in each group of regular drinkers (<25.0g,
25.0-50.0g, and >50.0g).
3. Based on the results that alcohol consumption in Japanese men is associated
with a statistically significant increased risk of erosive esophagitis and Barrett’s
epithelium regardless of the presence of hiatal hernia, is alcohol consumption
more likely to contribute to developing erosive esophagitis? The author had
better describe this in the Discussion Section.
4. In Table 2, p-value is unwritten. The author should fill in a blank.
I believe that you can modify your paper by considering the above-mentioned
comments to make this paper into better form.
Yours sincerely,
Yoshihisa Urita,MD, FACG
Level of interest: An article whose findings are important to those with closely
related research interests
Quality of written English: Acceptable
Statistical review: Yes, but I do not feel adequately qualified to assess the
statistics.
Declaration of competing interests:
I declare that I have no competing interests.
Reviewer's report
Title:Alcohol consumption is associated with an increased risk of erosive
esophagitis and Barrett's epithelium in Japanese men
Version: 1Date:14 June 2008
Reviewer: Yoshihisa URITA
Reviewer's report:
Dear Dr. Tomoyuki Akiyama,
Your manuscript entitled “Alcohol consumption is associated with an increased
risk of erosive esophagitis and Barrett's epithelium in Japanese men” has been
reviewed. The authors conclude that alcohol consumption plays an important role
in the etiology of erosive esophagitis and Barrett's epithelium in Japanese men.
This manuscript is of enough interest and describes original work that merits its
publication in the Journal of MBC Gastroenterology . Although the work was of
good quality, the manuscript required some revisions as below;
1. There was no description of the reason that patients attended to the hospital
and underwent an upper endoscopic examination. In Japan, most of patients with
reflux esophagitis do not complain of typical GERD symptoms, including
heartburn and regurgitation, whereas some patients without erosive gastritis
have persistent heartburn. It is possible that heavy drinkers may be insensitive to
gastroesophageal reflex of gastric acid, resulting in taking a greater amount of
ethanol.
2. Authors should describe the mean value of age, and BMI, and the rate of
subjects with smoking habit in each group of regular drinkers (<25.0g,
25.0-50.0g, and >50.0g).
3. Based on the results that alcohol consumption in Japanese men is associated
with a statistically significant increased risk of erosive esophagitis and Barrett’s
epithelium regardless of the presence of hiatal hernia, is alcohol consumption
more likely to contribute to developing erosive esophagitis? The author had
better describe this in the Discussion Section.
4. In Table 2, p-value is unwritten. The author should fill in a blank.
I believe that you can modify your paper by considering the above-mentioned
comments to make this paper into better form.
Yours sincerely,
Yoshihisa Urita,MD, FACG
Level of interest: An article whose findings are important to those with closely
related research interests
Quality of written English: Acceptable
Statistical review: Yes, but I do not feel adequately qualified to assess the
statistics.
Declaration of competing interests:
I declare that I have no competing interests.
Please review this paper.
user
Reviewer's report
Title:Alcohol consumption is associated with an increased risk of erosive
esophagitis and Barrett's epithelium in Japanese men
Version: 1Date:14 June 2008
Reviewer: Yoshihisa URITA
Reviewer's report:
Dear Dr. Tomoyuki Akiyama,
Your manuscript entitled “Alcohol consumption is associated with an increased
risk of erosive esophagitis and Barrett's epithelium in Japanese men” has been
reviewed. The authors conclude that alcohol consumption plays an important role
in the etiology of erosive esophagitis and Barrett's epithelium in Japanese men.
This manuscript is of enough interest and describes original work that merits its
publication in the Journal of MBC Gastroenterology . Although the work was of
good quality, the manuscript required some revisions as below;
1. There was no description of the reason that patients attended to the hospital
and underwent an upper endoscopic examination. In Japan, most of patients with
reflux esophagitis do not complain of typical GERD symptoms, including
heartburn and regurgitation, whereas some patients without erosive gastritis
have persistent heartburn. It is possible that heavy drinkers may be insensitive to
gastroesophageal reflex of gastric acid, resulting in taking a greater amount of
ethanol.
2. Authors should describe the mean value of age, and BMI, and the rate of
subjects with smoking habit in each group of regular drinkers (<25.0g,
25.0-50.0g, and >50.0g).
3. Based on the results that alcohol consumption in Japanese men is associated
with a statistically significant increased risk of erosive esophagitis and Barrett’s
epithelium regardless of the presence of hiatal hernia, is alcohol consumption
more likely to contribute to developing erosive esophagitis? The author had
better describe this in the Discussion Section.
4. In Table 2, p-value is unwritten. The author should fill in a blank.
I believe that you can modify your paper by considering the above-mentioned
comments to make this paper into better form.
Yours sincerely,
Yoshihisa Urita,MD, FACG
Level of interest: An article whose findings are important to those with closely
related research interests
Quality of written English: Acceptable
Statistical review: Yes, but I do not feel adequately qualified to assess the
statistics.
Declaration of competing interests:
I declare that I have no competing interests.
assistant