Homocysteine as a Predictor of Paroxysmal Atrial Fibrillation-Related Events: A Scoping Review of the Literature
, Aristi Boulmpou 1, Christodoulos E. Papadopoulos 1,*, Victoria Potoupni 1, Konstantina Tsioni 3, Pantelitsa Rakitzi 3, Theodoros Karamitsos 4 and Vassilios Vassilikos 1
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
The introduction is poor of notice and data. It must be enriched.
Author Response
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Author Response File: 
Author Response.docx
Reviewer 2 Report
Reviewing the manuscript entitled, “Homocysteine as a predictor of paroxysmal atrial fibrillation-related events: a scoping review of the literature” by Charalampidis P et al., this is an article focusing on a relationship between homocysteine and PAF analyzed by a scoping review. Although this is an interesting manuscript using a scoping review, this relationship is publicly known information for cardiologists, it is difficult to understand what is new for this manuscript. The authors need to response the following concerns.
Concerns
Scoping review is one of the relatively new techniques. The authors should explain the feature to the reader in the introduction section. And you also should explain the difference between a scoping review and a systematic review in the introduction section. And why you conducted this study as a scoping review. You need to describe reasons for not performing a meta-analysis.
Because the scoping review is exhaustive and exploratory, the research question should be why ?, HOW ?, however, the end of the introduction section in this manuscript does not correspond to it.
As this is a scoping review, the authors should describe the PCC in this study with tables to better explain it to the reader.
The PRISMA flowchart for scoping review is the crux of this study. The authors should be added it to the text, not as a supplement.
The authors should present their results using tables.
The relationship between cardiovascular disease and homocysteine is publicly known information for cardiologists. And I understand that PAF or AF is already a curable disease of sinus rhythm by ablation therapy. Atrial fibrillation, which is mainly caused by fibrosis of the left atrium, especially around the pulmonary veins, is a typical disease that can occur in an aging society. Why aren't ablation and aging societies included in the search terms? Therefore, I do not believe that the conclusions of this manuscript will be useful to clinicians.
Author Response
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Author Response File: 
Author Response.pdf
Round 2
Reviewer 2 Report
Reviewing the manuscript entitled, “Homocysteine as a predictor of paroxysmal atrial fibrillation-related events: a scoping review of the literature” by Charalampidis P et al., this is an article focusing on a relationship between homocysteine and PAF analyzed by a scoping review. Although this is an interesting manuscript using a scoping review, the authors need to response the following concern for acceptable quality.
Concern
You add a mention as “Atrial fibrillation (AF) represents the most common cardiac rhythm disorder, affecting millions of individuals worldwide, while its prevalence is expected to grow alarmingly within the next 50 years.” in the introduction section of the revised version. One reason for this is undoubtedly the aging of the world. This is even more important if this is a scoping review. In addition, atrial fibrillation is a disease that can be radically treated by ablation, and the relationship between Hcy and the effect of ablation treatment is an important keyword. However, keywords such as ablation and aging are not used. The authors need to describe above contents.
Author Response
Please see the attachment.
Author Response File: Author Response.docx
