Global Trends in Research of Gouty Arthritis Over Past Decade: A Bibliometric Analysis

Abstract

Gouty arthritis (GA), as a multifactorial disease, is characterised by intense pain, active inflammation symptoms, and swollen joints. It has utterly complex pathogenesis, of which the amount of research publications on GA has increased during the last few decades. A bibliometric analysis was carried out to investigate the trends, frontiers, and hot spots in global scientific output in GA research over the last decade. We retrieved the Science Citation Index Expanded (SCI-Expanded) of the Web of Science Core Collection (WoSCC) for publications and recorded information published from 2012 to 2021. we carried out the bibliometric analysis and visualisation analysis of the overall distribution of annual outputs, leading countries, active institutions, journals, authors, co-cited references, and keywords with the VOSviewer and CiteSpace. The impact and quality of papers were assessed using a global citation score (GCS). We retrieved 2052 articles and reviews in total. The annual number of publications (Np) related to GA research has increased during the latest decade. China published the most papers, and the USA achieved the highest H-index and number of citations (Nc). The League of European Research Universities (LERU) and Clinical Rheumatology (Clin Rheumatol) are the most productive institutions and periodicals. The total GCS of the paper written by Kottgen, A. in 2013 was 479, ranking the first. The most common keywords were “Gout,” “hyperuricemia,” and “gouty arthritis.” This research revealed that though there was a slight fluctuation in publications related to GA, the Np raised on the whole. China was an enormous creator, and the USA was an influential nation in this domain. The top three contributor authors were Dalbeth, N., Singh, JA., and Choi, HK. There were few investigations on the treatment of GA by Chinese medicine monomer, and the “mechanism,” “pathway”, “nf- kappa-b”, “injury”, “receptor”, and “animal model” were growing research hotspots. Our research illustrated the hotspots of research and development trends in the research field of GA during the last decade. Recognition of the most critical indicators (researchers, countries, institutes, and journals for the release of GA research), hotspots in the research field of GA can be helpful for countries, scholars, and policymakers in this field to understand GA better make decisions.