Reviewer's report
Title:Etiology of liver cirrhosis does not influence the severity of hepatic
encephalopathy: a cross-sectional study
Version: 1Date:24 August 2008
Reviewer: Bader Faiyaz Zuberi
Reviewer's report:
MAJOR COMPULSARY REVISIONS
1. Title should be revised to be more representative of study (e.g., correlation of
etiology with HE and QOL in cirrhosis)
2. Second paragraph in the section introduction regarding diabetes is unrelated
to the topic.
3. Proper methods are not used to study the objectives, impact of etiology on
prevalence could not be studied in a cross-sectional design neither the effects of
etiology on QOL could be studied in a cross-sectional design. Both could be
studied either in a cohort or a case-control design. However correlation could be
studied in a cross-sectional design. Changes in either are advised accordingly.
4. Confounders were not defined, age, gender, severity of liver disease, diabetes
and hypertension should rather be analyzed/adjusted as confounders.
5. Sample size estimation was not done; neither there is statement about the
power of the study. It needs to be stated that the study had enough power to
detect the differences.
6. For analysis patients were grouped into hepatocellular and cholestatic groups.
Grouping many causes into two groups has reduced the degrees of freedom (df)
of the study and has converted the study into comparison between these two
groups rather than the etiology which was the objective of the study. In my
opinion analysis should have been done for each individual etiology if not then
title and methods should be modified accordingly.
Level of interest: An article whose findings are important to those with closely
related research interests
Quality of written English: Acceptable
Statistical review: Yes, and I have assessed the statistics in my report.
Declaration of competing interests:
I declare that I have no competing interests
Reviewer's report
Title:Etiology of liver cirrhosis does not influence the severity of hepatic
encephalopathy: a cross-sectional study
Version: 1Date:24 August 2008
Reviewer: Bader Faiyaz Zuberi
Reviewer's report:
MAJOR COMPULSARY REVISIONS
1. Title should be revised to be more representative of study (e.g., correlation of
etiology with HE and QOL in cirrhosis)
2. Second paragraph in the section introduction regarding diabetes is unrelated
to the topic.
3. Proper methods are not used to study the objectives, impact of etiology on
prevalence could not be studied in a cross-sectional design neither the effects of
etiology on QOL could be studied in a cross-sectional design. Both could be
studied either in a cohort or a case-control design. However correlation could be
studied in a cross-sectional design. Changes in either are advised accordingly.
4. Confounders were not defined, age, gender, severity of liver disease, diabetes
and hypertension should rather be analyzed/adjusted as confounders.
5. Sample size estimation was not done; neither there is statement about the
power of the study. It needs to be stated that the study had enough power to
detect the differences.
6. For analysis patients were grouped into hepatocellular and cholestatic groups.
Grouping many causes into two groups has reduced the degrees of freedom (df)
of the study and has converted the study into comparison between these two
groups rather than the etiology which was the objective of the study. In my
opinion analysis should have been done for each individual etiology if not then
title and methods should be modified accordingly.
Level of interest: An article whose findings are important to those with closely
related research interests
Quality of written English: Acceptable
Statistical review: Yes, and I have assessed the statistics in my report.
Declaration of competing interests:
I declare that I have no competing interests
Please review this paper.
user
Reviewer's report
Title:Etiology of liver cirrhosis does not influence the severity of hepatic
encephalopathy: a cross-sectional study
Version: 1Date:24 August 2008
Reviewer: Bader Faiyaz Zuberi
Reviewer's report:
MAJOR COMPULSARY REVISIONS
1. Title should be revised to be more representative of study (e.g., correlation of
etiology with HE and QOL in cirrhosis)
2. Second paragraph in the section introduction regarding diabetes is unrelated
to the topic.
3. Proper methods are not used to study the objectives, impact of etiology on
prevalence could not be studied in a cross-sectional design neither the effects of
etiology on QOL could be studied in a cross-sectional design. Both could be
studied either in a cohort or a case-control design. However correlation could be
studied in a cross-sectional design. Changes in either are advised accordingly.
4. Confounders were not defined, age, gender, severity of liver disease, diabetes
and hypertension should rather be analyzed/adjusted as confounders.
5. Sample size estimation was not done; neither there is statement about the
power of the study. It needs to be stated that the study had enough power to
detect the differences.
6. For analysis patients were grouped into hepatocellular and cholestatic groups.
Grouping many causes into two groups has reduced the degrees of freedom (df)
of the study and has converted the study into comparison between these two
groups rather than the etiology which was the objective of the study. In my
opinion analysis should have been done for each individual etiology if not then
title and methods should be modified accordingly.
Level of interest: An article whose findings are important to those with closely
related research interests
Quality of written English: Acceptable
Statistical review: Yes, and I have assessed the statistics in my report.
Declaration of competing interests:
I declare that I have no competing interests
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