Skeletal Muscle Oxidative Metabolism during Exercise Measured with Near Infrared Spectroscopy
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
Comments and Suggestions for AuthorsGeneral Comments:
The manuscript requires significant attention to detail in terms of proofreading and clarity. As it stands, the text is difficult to follow, and it appears that the authors have not thoroughly reviewed the manuscript prior to submission. This lack of clarity and coherence in presenting the concepts and results makes it challenging for reviewers to assess the work effectively. It is not the responsibility of the reviewer to rewrite or extensively edit the manuscript on behalf of the authors.
Furthermore, the manuscript does not adequately stress the importance of this work within the broader scientific community, especially considering the existing literature on oxidative metabolism during exercise at varying intensities.
I recommend that the manuscript be returned to the authors for thorough proofreading, with a request to reformulate the key concepts and results more clearly. However, if the manuscript is accepted for review, I offer the following specific comments:
Review:
1. Abstract: There are unusual symbols in the text when reporting mVO2 during exercise, which need to be corrected.
2. Methods (Line 60-65): The number of participants should be mentioned in the results section, since there is no reported sample size calculation.
3. Methods (Line 60-65): The average adipose tissue and related correlations should be included in the results section. The current text introduces differences between Day 1 and Day 2 without first describing the protocol, making it difficult to follow. This entire paragraph needs revision.
4. Figure 1: There is no caption provided, only labels for "A" and "B". This needs to be addressed.
5. Protocol Schematic: Could the authors include a schematic diagram of the entire protocol? This would greatly aid in understanding the experimental design.
6. Statistical Analyses (Line 166): There are typographical errors in this section. The statistical tests used should be clearly identified, along with the significance levels for each test.
7. Figures 2, 3, and 4: The rationale behind choosing these figures as representative is unclear. The authors should provide more context. Additionally, the font size and overall quality of these figures should be improved for better readability.
8. Table Formatting: The tables could be made more compact and easier to read by reporting values in the format: number ± standard deviation.
9. Figures 5B and 6: These figures are referenced in the text, but they do not appear to exist in the manuscript. This needs to be corrected.
10. Results Interpretation: The explanation of results does not correspond well with the figures provided. The authors should guide the reader more effectively through the data, ensuring that the results and their interpretations are clear and logical.
Comments on the Quality of English Language
The flow of the manuscript needs to be revised extensively.
Author Response
Comments and Suggestions for Authors
General Comments:
The manuscript requires significant attention to detail in terms of proofreading and clarity. As it stands, the text is difficult to follow, and it appears that the authors have not thoroughly reviewed the manuscript prior to submission. This lack of clarity and coherence in presenting the concepts and results makes it challenging for reviewers to assess the work effectively. It is not the responsibility of the reviewer to rewrite or extensively edit the manuscript on behalf of the authors.
Furthermore, the manuscript does not adequately stress the importance of this work within the broader scientific community, especially considering the existing literature on oxidative metabolism during exercise at varying intensities.
I recommend that the manuscript be returned to the authors for thorough proofreading, with a request to reformulate the key concepts and results more clearly. However, if the manuscript is accepted for review, I offer the following specific comments:
We apologize if the paper was difficult to read, and we have significantly edited the text to improve this aspect of the paper.
Review:
- Abstract:There are unusual symbols in the text when reporting mVO2 during exercise, which need to be corrected.
This has been corrected
- Methods (Line 60-65):The number of participants should be mentioned in the results section, since there is no reported sample size calculation.
This was done
- Methods (Line 60-65):The average adipose tissue and related correlations should be included in the results section. The current text introduces differences between Day 1 and Day 2 without first describing the protocol, making it difficult to follow. This entire paragraph needs revision.
ATT has been moved to the results section. The protocol is better described.
- Figure 1:There is no caption provided, only labels for "A" and "B". This needs to be addressed.
A caption has been included
- Protocol Schematic:Could the authors include a schematic diagram of the entire protocol? This would greatly aid in understanding the experimental design.
Figure 1 has been added to include the entire protocol.
- Statistical Analyses (Line 166):There are typographical errors in this section. The statistical tests used should be clearly identified, along with the significance levels for each test.
A better description of the statistics is provided.
- Figures 2, 3, and 4:The rationale behind choosing these figures as representative is unclear. The authors should provide more context. Additionally, the font size and overall quality of these figures should be improved for better readability.
The figures are better explained in the text.
- Table Formatting:The tables could be made more compact and easier to read by reporting values in the format: number ± standard deviation.
We have attempted to reformat the tables
- Figures 5B and 6:These figures are referenced in the text, but they do not appear to exist in the manuscript. This needs to be corrected.
These figures are now referred to in the text.
- Results Interpretation:The explanation of results does not correspond well with the figures provided. The authors should guide the reader more effectively through the data, ensuring that the results and their interpretations are clear and logical.
We have revised our explanation of the figures in the results.
Comments on the Quality of English Language
The flow of the manuscript needs to be revised extensively.
Submission Date
06 August 2024
Date of this review
14 Aug 2024 15:41:03
Reviewer 2 Report
Comments and Suggestions for AuthorsIn this work, the authors used NIR to evaluate skeletal muscle oxidative metabolism during varying types and intensities of exercise, which is useful for doctors. However, there are some issues to be addressed.
1. It is well known that NIR spectroscopy can be to detect muscle oxygen consumption (mVO2). However, what is the relationship between mVO2 and skeletal muscle oxidative metabolism? This is very complicated and should be stated clearly.
2. The thickness of subcutaneous fat has a great influence on the detection results of NIR measurement. In this work, how did the authors solve this problem?
3. There are some errors in the manuscript, demonstrating that the authors did not carefully review the manuscript before submission.
(1) Line 31, “has been frequently assessed have been assessed as part of in Increasingly, the”, please check
(2) Line 64-65, “ATT measurements of the same location were highly correlated for day one and day two (r2 = 0.94).” What are the two parameters correlated?
(3) Line 157, “see Figure 3.4”, where is Figure 3.4?
(4) Line 192, where are Figure 5A and Figure 5B?
(5) There are Figure 5 and Figure 7, where is Figure 6?
(6) For Table 1, please use a three-line table.
Author Response
Comments and Suggestions for Authors
In this work, the authors used NIR to evaluate skeletal muscle oxidative metabolism during varying types and intensities of exercise, which is useful for doctors. However, there are some issues to be addressed.
- It is well known that NIR spectroscopy can be to detect muscle oxygen consumption (mVO2). However, what is the relationship between mVO2 and skeletal muscle oxidative metabolism? This is very complicated and should be stated clearly.
We have revised this purpose section to make it more clear. We very much appreciate the efforts the review made to read and review our paper.
- The thickness of subcutaneous fat has a great influence on the detection results of NIR measurement. In this work, how did the authors solve this problem?
We normalized the NIRS data to a ‘physiological calibration’. This accounts for ATT thickness. This has been clarified in the methods section.
- There are some errors in the manuscript, demonstrating that the authors did not carefully review the manuscript before submission.
These have been addressed.
- Line 31, “has been frequently assessed have been assessed as part of in Increasingly, the”, please check
This has been addressed
- Line 64-65, “ATT measurements of the same location were highly correlated for day one and day two (r2 = 0.94).” What are the two parameters correlated?
This refers to the ATT measurements at the location where the NIRS device was placed.
- Line 157, “see Figure 3.4”, where is Figure 3.4?
This has been corrected
- Line 192, where are Figure 5A and Figure 5B?
All figures are now included
(5) There are Figure 5 and Figure 7, where is Figure 6?
All figures are now included
(6) For Table 1, please use a three-line table.
We have reformatted the table.
Submission Date
06 August 2024
Date of this review
19 Aug 2024 05:23:25
Reviewer 3 Report
Comments and Suggestions for AuthorsAim of this study is to characterize muscle oxygen consumption in the vastus lateralis muscle during different moving exercise by means of arterial occlusion and NIRS, indicating this setup as useful to accurately evaluate muscles oxidative function.
Background information correctly introduce the reader into the topic, methods are extensively explained, data are nicely presented and support conclusion.
No concerns from my side
Author Response
Comments and Suggestions for Authors
Aim of this study is to characterize muscle oxygen consumption in the vastus lateralis muscle during different moving exercise by means of arterial occlusion and NIRS, indicating this setup as useful to accurately evaluate muscles oxidative function.
Background information correctly introduce the reader into the topic, methods are extensively explained, data are nicely presented and support conclusion.
No concerns from my side
We appreciate the reviewers efforts to read and review our paper. We have made significant revisions to clarify and improve the paper.
Submission Date
06 August 2024
Date of this review
23 Aug 2024 18:38:36
Round 2
Reviewer 1 Report
Comments and Suggestions for Authors
Regarding Figures 3 and 5A/B, there are likely several alternative ways to format these figures to make them clearer and more understandable for the reader. At least all the font size of the figures should be the same.
Author Response
Regarding Figures 3 and 5A/B, there are likely several alternative ways to format these figures to make them clearer and more understandable for the reader. At least all the font size of the figures should be the same.
We have revised the figures to make them more uniform in formatting. In addition, we have used a different data file for figure 3, which we feel was easier to format and shows essentially the same representative data.
Reviewer 2 Report
Comments and Suggestions for AuthorsAll issues have been addressed.
Author Response
We appreciate the efforts of the reviewer to read our revised manuscript.
