Reviewer's report
Title:Extent of liver inflammation in predicting response to Interferon alpha &
Ribavirin in chronic hepatitis C patients: a cohort study
Version: 2Date:6 August 2011
Reviewer: Masayuki Kurosaki
Reviewer's report:
Major Compulsory Revisions
I agree with the author that liver inflammation may be one of the factors for liver
fibrosis. However, liver inflammation is not the sole determinant of liver fibrosis.
Thus, it is premature to regard liver fibrosis as not being a confounding factor. I
feel a sense of discomfort to exclude liver fibrosis, an established predictor of
response to therapy, from the analysis by design. Therefore, I suggest the
authors to present their data on the association between liver fibrosis and
treatment outcome, and to perform a multivariable analysis including fibrosis or
an analysis stratified by the stage of liver fibrosis.
Level of interest: An article of limited interest
Quality of written English: Acceptable
Statistical review: No, the manuscript does not need to be seen by a
statistician.
Declaration of competing interests:
I declare that I have no competing interests.
Reviewer's report
Title:Extent of liver inflammation in predicting response to Interferon alpha &
Ribavirin in chronic hepatitis C patients: a cohort study
Version: 2Date:6 August 2011
Reviewer: Masayuki Kurosaki
Reviewer's report:
Major Compulsory Revisions
I agree with the author that liver inflammation may be one of the factors for liver
fibrosis. However, liver inflammation is not the sole determinant of liver fibrosis.
Thus, it is premature to regard liver fibrosis as not being a confounding factor. I
feel a sense of discomfort to exclude liver fibrosis, an established predictor of
response to therapy, from the analysis by design. Therefore, I suggest the
authors to present their data on the association between liver fibrosis and
treatment outcome, and to perform a multivariable analysis including fibrosis or
an analysis stratified by the stage of liver fibrosis.
Level of interest: An article of limited interest
Quality of written English: Acceptable
Statistical review: No, the manuscript does not need to be seen by a
statistician.
Declaration of competing interests:
I declare that I have no competing interests.
Please review this paper.
user
Reviewer's report
Title:Extent of liver inflammation in predicting response to Interferon alpha &
Ribavirin in chronic hepatitis C patients: a cohort study
Version: 2Date:6 August 2011
Reviewer: Masayuki Kurosaki
Reviewer's report:
Major Compulsory Revisions
I agree with the author that liver inflammation may be one of the factors for liver
fibrosis. However, liver inflammation is not the sole determinant of liver fibrosis.
Thus, it is premature to regard liver fibrosis as not being a confounding factor. I
feel a sense of discomfort to exclude liver fibrosis, an established predictor of
response to therapy, from the analysis by design. Therefore, I suggest the
authors to present their data on the association between liver fibrosis and
treatment outcome, and to perform a multivariable analysis including fibrosis or
an analysis stratified by the stage of liver fibrosis.
Level of interest: An article of limited interest
Quality of written English: Acceptable
Statistical review: No, the manuscript does not need to be seen by a
statistician.
Declaration of competing interests:
I declare that I have no competing interests.
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