Prevalence of Multiple Sclerosis in Patients with Inflammatory Bowel Disease
, Gian Paolo Caviglia 1, Giorgia La Piana 1, Marta Vernero 1, Valentina Schillaci 2, Angelo Armandi 1, Francesco Stalla 1, Demis Pitoni 1, Elisabetta Bugianesi 1,3, Alessia Ciancio 1,3, Paola Cavalla 2 and Davide Giuseppe Ribaldone 1,3,*Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
I would like the authors to comment on the following remarks:
Did the age between MS and Controls at the time of data evaluation differ or not? If the control group was significantly older this would affect the survival rate regardless of the absence of a difference in age of disease onset.
Female gender was found to be a risk factor for developing MS. However, Table 1 shows that of the MS cases, two were women.
Please comment on how correct was to select the control group using the alphabetical order. Was it possible or not to compare the rest of the patients with the MS cases?
Author Response
Please find attached the suggested revisions.
Author Response File: 
Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 2 Report
The article is well organized and provides results on a relevant topic for IBD. In general, it is easy to follow, and the rationale is adequately explained. In my opinion, some issues to be addressed are:
- Correct typo in page 2 line 71 " autoinmune"
- I am suggesting adding in Northern Italy to the aim "The aim of our.... patients with IBD in Northern Italy."
- On page 3, lines 129–130, should RRMS be MS-RR and SP-SM be SM-SP?
- In Table 1, you mention in the main text and discussion that female is 12 (85.7%), but in the table, it is another Weise. This is important because it changes the female risk for MS, Please ensure this is not a typo??
- I am suggesting writing a few sentences about the result of the KM curve in the result section and not only in the discussion.
- In conclusion:" while it discourages the use of anti-TNF in patients with MS, as it may be associated with disease recurrence" I think it is difficult to draw this conclusion for the study according to two patients only.
Author Response
Please find attached the suggested revisions.
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 3 Report
The present article proposes to study the prevalence of MS in patients with IBD from northern Italy. The study is relevant, it rigorously details the classification and characteristics of the patients studied, and the statistical criteria were adequate. The writing was clear and no grammatical errors were observed.
Here are some suggestions:
- For this, he uses medical records from his gastroenterology clinic. However, it does not specify the data of the clinic to which it refers. I suggest adding it in materials and methos.
- There is no citation or reference to the prevalence of MS in northern Italy, I suggest adding that data.
- Why only analyze data from northern italy? the prevalence suggested by the authors is only observed in this population? Are there discrepancies between different regions or simply no data?
Author Response
Please find attached the suggested revisions.
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
