PONE-D-24-49692Atypical Nucleus Pulposus Migration and Calcification: A Specific Radiographic Sign for Lumbar Rheumatoid SpondylitisPLOS ONE

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Reviewers' comments:

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Comments to the Author

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

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Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: No

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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?

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Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: No

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Reviewer #1: No

Reviewer #2: Yes

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5. Review Comments to the Author

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Reviewer #1: All chi-square tests were performed correctly. However, the test used to compare the ages of the groups should have been the Mann-Whitney U test, not the Wilocoxon test. (The Wilxon test is applied to dependent groups).

Reviewer #2: Thanks for submitting your article for review. Here are my comments:

1. Why choose only surgical patients?

2. Was the CRP, RF evaluated in the control group?

3. The authors mention "atypical" NP migration in the title and abstract, but the term atypical is not mentioned nor explained in the manuscript. ?

4. Did the authors include definitions/thresholds for calcification and disk migration?

5. Why are you not including patient caracteristics from the control group?

6. Why do patients in the control group are included if they have a migrated disk but not the RA group?

7. How can the authors conclude that the sign is specific if they don't provide a specificity/sensibility?

8. Funding sources are not specified in the manuscript

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Reviewer #1: Yes:  Hanefi Özbek

Reviewer #2: No

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<p>Atypical Nucleus Pulposus Migration and Calcification: A Specific Radiographic Sign for Lumbar Rheumatoid Spondylitis

PONE-D-24-49692R1

Dear Dr. Cui,

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,

Alessandra Aldieri

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

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

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 #2: No

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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

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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 #2: Thanks for the modifications. The corrections allows a better comprehension of the article.

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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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