PONE-D-22-02948Lipid abnormalities and associated risk factors among HIV/AIDS patients on HAART in Asmara, EritreaPLOS ONE

Dear Dr. Kesete,

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1. Is the manuscript technically sound, and do the data support the conclusions?

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Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Partly

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2. Has the statistical analysis been performed appropriately and rigorously?

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: N/A

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3. Have the authors made all data underlying the findings in their manuscript fully available?

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Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

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4. Is the manuscript presented in an intelligible fashion and written in standard English?

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Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: No

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5. Review Comments to the Author

Please use the space provided to explain your answers to the questions above. You may also include additional comments for the author, including concerns about dual publication, research ethics, or publication ethics. (Please upload your review as an attachment if it exceeds 20,000 characters)

Reviewer #1: Review comments

Title: Lipid abnormalities and associated risk factors among HIV/AIDS patients on HAART in Asmara, Eritrea

Submission ID: PONE-D-22-02948

The authors assess dyslipidemia associated with HAART in HIV/AIDS patients which an important topic to uncover the negative impacts of the treatment. So far, many studies elucidated this scenario and I appreciate the novelty of this study conducted in Eritrea for the first time. The point by point concerns are detailed below.

Title: the title better be “Dyslipidemia…..

Abstract:

Acronyms like HAART, LDL, TC, CVD, etc… should be fully written on their first appearance

In the results section, CD4 should be corrected as “CD4+ T cell count (cell/microliter)”. In addition, results with a significant association at aOR should be considered the real predictors. cOR data cannot be inferred or reported as final outcome of association

In the conclusion factors significantly associated with dyslipidemia should be highlighted

Results

In the results, the cOR values better be displayed for readers convenience

Discussion

Subtitles in the discussion could be removed. Besides, the limitations of the study should be stated at the last paragraph of the discussion. Then the importance of the study can be mentions

Conclusion

The conclusion should not contain results values like percentages. The conclusion should be a single paragraph containing the burden of dyslipidemia (not in percentages, rather saying either “significantly high” or other means of expression). Then important predictors are mentioned and lastly a brief recommendation should be included.

Reviewer #2: Dear Authors, thank you for your work. The data are interesting but are presented in an unclear way. The text is very difficult to read, especially the presentation of the results. Furthermore, there are long and repetitive sections within the methods with not important data while some fundamental aspects are totally absent, such as the timing of the collection of the lipid profile in these patients.

1) At what time of HAART therapy were the patients evaluated for lipid profile?

2) Do we have baseline or pre-therapy values ​​in at least some of the patients?

3) Furthermore, the therapy taken by patients should be better analyzed, looking for the use of statins in at least part of them.

4) A complete revision of the English language by native speakers is extremely necessary.

5) There are also widespread grammatical errors and typos.

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Reviewer #1: Yes: HYLEMARIAM MIHIRETIE MENGIST

Reviewer #2: No

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Attachments

Attachment

Submitted filename: Review comments.docx

Dyslipidemia and associated risk factors among HIV/AIDS patients on HAART in Asmara, Eritrea

PONE-D-22-02948R1

Dear Dr. Kesete,

We’re pleased to inform you that your manuscript has been judged scientifically suitable for publication and will be formally accepted for publication once it meets all outstanding technical requirements.

Within one week, you’ll receive an e-mail detailing the required amendments. When these have been addressed, you’ll receive a formal acceptance letter and your manuscript will be scheduled for publication.

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Kind regards,

Arturo Cesaro, MD

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

Additional Editor Comments (optional):

The manuscript appears to be improved after editing in accordance with the reviewers' comments.

Reviewers' comments:

Reviewer's Responses to Questions

Comments to the Author

1. If the authors have adequately addressed your comments raised in a previous round of review and you feel that this manuscript is now acceptable for publication, you may indicate that here to bypass the “Comments to the Author” section, enter your conflict of interest statement in the “Confidential to Editor” section, and submit your "Accept" recommendation.

Reviewer #1: All comments have been addressed

Reviewer #2: All comments have been addressed

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2. Is the manuscript technically sound, and do the data support the conclusions?

The manuscript must describe a technically sound piece of scientific research with data that supports the conclusions. Experiments must have been conducted rigorously, with appropriate controls, replication, and sample sizes. The conclusions must be drawn appropriately based on the data presented.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

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3. Has the statistical analysis been performed appropriately and rigorously?

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

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4. Have the authors made all data underlying the findings in their manuscript fully available?

The PLOS Data policy requires authors to make all data underlying the findings described in their manuscript fully available without restriction, with rare exception (please refer to the Data Availability Statement in the manuscript PDF file). The data should be provided as part of the manuscript or its supporting information, or deposited to a public repository. For example, in addition to summary statistics, the data points behind means, medians and variance measures should be available. If there are restrictions on publicly sharing data—e.g. participant privacy or use of data from a third party—those must be specified.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

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5. Is the manuscript presented in an intelligible fashion and written in standard English?

PLOS ONE does not copyedit accepted manuscripts, so the language in submitted articles must be clear, correct, and unambiguous. Any typographical or grammatical errors should be corrected at revision, so please note any specific errors here.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

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6. Review Comments to the Author

Please use the space provided to explain your answers to the questions above. You may also include additional comments for the author, including concerns about dual publication, research ethics, or publication ethics. (Please upload your review as an attachment if it exceeds 20,000 characters)

Reviewer #1: The significantly associated factors should be clearly indicated in the table. use either asterisks or other symbols.

Reviewer #2: Dear authors,

Thanks to have replied to my comments. I think that the text has been improved after revision

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7. PLOS authors have the option to publish the peer review history of their article (what does this mean?). If published, this will include your full peer review and any attached files.

If you choose “no”, your identity will remain anonymous but your review may still be made public.

Do you want your identity to be public for this peer review? For information about this choice, including consent withdrawal, please see our Privacy Policy.

Reviewer #1: Yes: HYLEMARIAM MIHIRETIE MENGIST

Reviewer #2: No

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