PONE-D-22-24035

Incidence of lower limb deep vein thrombosis in patients with COVID-19 pneumonia through different waves of SARS-CoV-2 pandemic: a multicenter prospective study.

PLOS ONE

Dear Dr. Pieralli,

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Chiara Lazzeri

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

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2. We noticed you have some minor occurrence of overlapping text with the following previous publication(s), which needs to be addressed:

Pieralli F, Pomero F, Giampieri M, Marcucci R, Prisco D, Luise F, et al. (2021) Incidence of deep vein thrombosis through an ultrasound surveillance protocol in patients with COVID-19 pneumonia in non-ICU setting: A multicenter prospective study. PLoS ONE 16(5): e0251966. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0251966

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Reviewers' comments:

Reviewer's Responses to Questions

Comments to the Author

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

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

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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: Yes

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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: The paper presents a high quality of processing in terms of methodology, contents and results. As regards the introduction, it would be appropriate to increase the number of references and the length of the introduction, also introducing the background paragraph to provide a broader overview of the existing scientific literature also through a rapid revision of the same.

From a methodological point of view, I recommend providing the inclusion and exclusion criteria for recruited subjects more explicit because it would give further added value to this high-quality work.

The results are well represented both graphically and from a descriptive point of view, however, English should be improved.

The discussion is well structured, but I would suggest to increase the references because they are very few compared to the contents reported

Reviewer #2: The authors aimed to evaluate the incidence of deep vein thrombosis (DVT) of the lower limbs in patients hospitalized with COVID-19 pneumonia in a non-ICU setting according to the different waves of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic.

The topics is relevant. Overall considered the paper is well written but the discussion needs to be a little expanded including more detailed pathophysiological considerations between cardiovascular diseases and COVID-19. For example cite and comment the article by Ielapi N et al. Cardiovascular disease as a biomarker for an increased risk of COVID-19 infection and related poor prognosis. Biomark Med. 2020 Jun;14(9):713-716. doi: 10.2217/bmm-2020-0201.

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Reviewer #1: No

Reviewer #2: No

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Incidence of lower limb deep vein thrombosis in patients with COVID-19 pneumonia through different waves of SARS-CoV-2 pandemic: a multicenter prospective study.

PONE-D-22-24035R1

Dear Dr. Pieralli,

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.

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Kind regards,

Chiara Lazzeri

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

Additional Editor Comments (optional):

Reviewers' comments: