PONE-D-23-41403Clinical value and appropriateness of functional assessment methods for patellofemoral pain: Reliability and predictive and preventive capacity of questionnaires & physical testsPLOS ONE

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Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

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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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3. 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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4. 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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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: This study was aimed to determine the most appropriate method of functional assessment for "patellofemoral pain" (PFP)/“chondromalacia patella” for its diagnostic value, (validity, reliability, sensitivity, specificity, predictive value and clinical applicability); to outline initial interpretations of the questionnaires and their appropriateness, through the cutoff points determined in their scores based on physical test and Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI); to establish which methods should be used in conjunction with each other to obtain clinical diagnoses that are robust effective and efficient. The study findings indicated that KOOS-PF, KPS and VISA-P demonstrated their diagnostic value in PFP/chondromalacia (validity, reliability, sensitivity, specificity, predictive value and clinical applicability). KOOS-PF was the most versatile, and the most appropriate in mild cases and for early detection and prevention. Squat was the best due to its reliability and clinical relationship with the questionnaires, which predicted it correctly. The methods discussed should be applied in combination. Overall, the study is interesting, however there are several clarifications needed.

Comment#1

Title is not appropriate. Please state title more accurately, scientifically and concisely.

Comment#2

Please edit Keywords. Keywords should be the reflective of the research performed. In addition to predictive capacity, intra- and inter-observer reliability and clinical usefulness were assessed in this study.

Comment#3

Introduction. Please insert reference/references in different parts of Introduction section for supporting the sentences stated.

Comment#4

Methods. How did you assess the preventive capacity of questionnaires & physical tests?

Comment#5

Please state sample size calculation.

Comment#6

Please state study limitations.

Reviewer #2: Thank you for providing us with the opportunity to review this manuscript. Overall, the topic is a nice job with some minor concerns, which I will outline below.

Line 52. What do you mean?

Line 83-85. Please rewrite these sentences.

Line 93. “so non-specific questionnaires, such as the Fulkerson Knee Instability Scale (FKIS)[26], are also.. “What do you mean?

Line 129. Please clearly explain PFP diagnosis in your study participants.

Did having musculoskeletal disorders in other joints as an exclusion criteria? Please explain exclusion criteria in detail.

Line 143. “KPS” is “KOOS-PF”?

Line 145-146. Please edit this sentence grammatically.

Line 168. Please explain words before abbreviating “FE-CR, FE-CR)

Please explain CP grad using MRI assessment.

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Reviewer #1: No

Reviewer #2: No

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Clinical value of questionnaires & physical tests for patellofemoral pain: validity, reliability and predictive capacity.

PONE-D-23-41403R1

Dear Dr. Fernando Espuny-Ruiz,

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,

Mehrnaz Kajbafvala, Ph.D

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

Additional Editor Comments (optional):

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

**********

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

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

**********

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: (No Response)

Reviewer #2: (No Response)

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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: No

Reviewer #2: No

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