Title: Symptoms and symptom clusters in patients newly diagnosed with Inflammatory Bowel
Disease: results from the IBSEN III Study
Version: 1 Date: 10 May 2023
Reviewer's report:
This is an interesting study aimed to examine the prevalence of symptoms and explore symptom
clusters and their possible associations with socio-demographic and clinical variables in a
prospective population-based inception cohort of patients newly diagnosed inflammatory bowel
disease.
The study was well performed and written and the aim is very interesting. I believe there are
some aspects to be clarified that would improve the quality of the study.
First of all, I believe it is necessary to clarify whether the same analyzes were carried out on
stool and blood samples in all the patients or whether only the data from available tests were
collected. It would also be necessary to specify whether the analyzes were centralized in a single
laboratory or not and which biochemical parameters were analyzed on the blood samples.
Authors should clarify the meaning of the following sentence "Fecal calprotectin values <30
and >1800 µg/g were registered as 29 and 1801 µg/g, respectively" (lines 151-152).
Although the numerical value does not change, the authors should standardize the unit of
measurement of fecal calprotectin (mg/kg or µg/g) both in the text and in Table 1. It is not clear
what the following sentence in the Table 1 legend refers to “*Fecal calprotectin values <30 and
>1800 µg/g were registered as 29 and 1801 µg/g, respectively”.
In the methods paragraph, the authors should state that the MSAS questionnaire was
electronically administered, as reported in the discussion.
Regarding the prevalence of symptoms, how do the authors explain a significantly higher
proportion of patients with dizziness among those with active disease?
Finally, I think the authors meant that no statistically significant association was found between
calprotectin # 250 mg/kg and cluster membership (line 255).
Title: Symptoms and symptom clusters in patients newly diagnosed with Inflammatory Bowel
Disease: results from the IBSEN III Study
Version: 1 Date: 10 May 2023
Reviewer's report:
This is an interesting study aimed to examine the prevalence of symptoms and explore symptom
clusters and their possible associations with socio-demographic and clinical variables in a
prospective population-based inception cohort of patients newly diagnosed inflammatory bowel
disease.
The study was well performed and written and the aim is very interesting. I believe there are
some aspects to be clarified that would improve the quality of the study.
First of all, I believe it is necessary to clarify whether the same analyzes were carried out on
stool and blood samples in all the patients or whether only the data from available tests were
collected. It would also be necessary to specify whether the analyzes were centralized in a single
laboratory or not and which biochemical parameters were analyzed on the blood samples.
Authors should clarify the meaning of the following sentence "Fecal calprotectin values <30
and >1800 µg/g were registered as 29 and 1801 µg/g, respectively" (lines 151-152).
Although the numerical value does not change, the authors should standardize the unit of
measurement of fecal calprotectin (mg/kg or µg/g) both in the text and in Table 1. It is not clear
what the following sentence in the Table 1 legend refers to “*Fecal calprotectin values <30 and
>1800 µg/g were registered as 29 and 1801 µg/g, respectively”.
In the methods paragraph, the authors should state that the MSAS questionnaire was
electronically administered, as reported in the discussion.
Regarding the prevalence of symptoms, how do the authors explain a significantly higher
proportion of patients with dizziness among those with active disease?
Finally, I think the authors meant that no statistically significant association was found between
calprotectin # 250 mg/kg and cluster membership (line 255).
Please review this paper.
user
Title: Symptoms and symptom clusters in patients newly diagnosed with Inflammatory Bowel
Disease: results from the IBSEN III Study
Version: 1 Date: 10 May 2023
Reviewer's report:
This is an interesting study aimed to examine the prevalence of symptoms and explore symptom
clusters and their possible associations with socio-demographic and clinical variables in a
prospective population-based inception cohort of patients newly diagnosed inflammatory bowel
disease.
The study was well performed and written and the aim is very interesting. I believe there are
some aspects to be clarified that would improve the quality of the study.
First of all, I believe it is necessary to clarify whether the same analyzes were carried out on
stool and blood samples in all the patients or whether only the data from available tests were
collected. It would also be necessary to specify whether the analyzes were centralized in a single
laboratory or not and which biochemical parameters were analyzed on the blood samples.
Authors should clarify the meaning of the following sentence "Fecal calprotectin values <30
and >1800 µg/g were registered as 29 and 1801 µg/g, respectively" (lines 151-152).
Although the numerical value does not change, the authors should standardize the unit of
measurement of fecal calprotectin (mg/kg or µg/g) both in the text and in Table 1. It is not clear
what the following sentence in the Table 1 legend refers to “*Fecal calprotectin values <30 and
>1800 µg/g were registered as 29 and 1801 µg/g, respectively”.
In the methods paragraph, the authors should state that the MSAS questionnaire was
electronically administered, as reported in the discussion.
Regarding the prevalence of symptoms, how do the authors explain a significantly higher
proportion of patients with dizziness among those with active disease?
Finally, I think the authors meant that no statistically significant association was found between
calprotectin # 250 mg/kg and cluster membership (line 255).
assistant