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PONE-D-23-42287Correlation between Novel Inflammatory Markers and Carotid Atherosclerosis: a Cross-Sectional StudyPLOS ONE

Dear Dr. qi,

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PLOS ONE

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"The study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No.81571373, No.81601217, No.82001491), Natural Science Foundation of Hubei Province of China (Grant No. 2017CFB627), Health Commission of Hubei Province scientific research project (Grant No. WJ2021M247) and Scientific Research Fund of Wuhan Union Hospital (Grant No.2019)."

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Additional Editor Comments:

Please address all review from the reviewers below

Please also make the rebuttal letter to address each of the issue

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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: Dear Authors, I want to say that this study fulfills the novelty and offers an important result. But, I am concerned about several issues in your manuscript. I think you need to explain more the main rationale of the study and explain why the variable is choosen to investigate. The other comments on the issues have been embedded in the reviewed manuscript. I hope you can revise for the improvement of your manuscript.

line 3 ....In the title the authors mention a cross sectional study design, but in the method section the authors mention the different study design

line 77 ...In the introduction section... Can the authors mention possible factors leading to chronic inflammation which especially is significant in cerebrovascular atherosclerosis?

Line 99... Can authors elaborate why and how significant this variable (CAS) is considered to be investigated in the study. I suggest the explanation can be the rationale of the selection of the CAS in this study?

Line 101..The authors should state consistently the study design

Line 109 ...Can the authors specify the inclusion criteria of subject selection in this study, it can be range of age, gender, and some specific health-related status, etc.

Line 116 ..Do the authors consider the history of TIA, diabetes, smoking history, neck blunt trauma, etc as the confounding factors or exclusion criteria?

Line 120...Please the author provide the timing of lab data collection

Line 141...Is there any temporal relationship between this medical history and the timing of lab data collection?

Line 164..These criteria of subject selection are not yet mentioned in the method section

Line 167 - 172 ...There are several variables which are different between the CAS group and non CAS group. Can the authors interpret these findings?

Line 204 ..Can the authors show the statistical analysis for adjusting these confounding factors?

Reviewer #2: I evaluated this study in which new inflammatory markers were used to predict coronary artery disease. The fact that the number of patients in the study is quite remarkable increases the power of the study. New inflammatory markers were found to be significantly correlated with carotid atherosclerosis; However, NLPR was found to be the most appropriate inflammatory marker to predict the risk of carotid atherosclerosis. These markers may be practical, accessible and inexpensive for the clinician to use in their daily routine. In general, the English language of the well-designed and written study should be reviewed.

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Reviewer #1: No

Reviewer #2: No

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Attachments

Attachment

Submitted filename: Minor Revision.docx

Correlation between Novel Inflammatory Markers and Carotid Atherosclerosis: a Retrospective Case-control Study

PONE-D-23-42287R1

Dear Dr. qi,

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,

Elvan Wiyarta, M.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 #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 #2: Yes

**********

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

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 #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 #2: Yes

**********

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 #2: Ihave reviewed the article. It s a good study. I hope that the results will be beneficial.

thank you

sincerely yours

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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 #2: No

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