Particulate matter and atherosclerosis: a bibliometric analysis of original research articles published in 1973-2014

Abstract

Background: Epidemiological and experimental studies have suggested that exposure to particulate air pollution may promote progression of atherosclerosis.

Methods: In the present study, the characteristics and trends of the research field of particulate matter (PM) and atherosclerosis were analyzed using bibliometric indicators. Bibliometric analysis was based on original papers obtained from PubMed/MEDLINE search results (from 1973 to 2014) using Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) terms. A fully-detailed search strategy was employed, and articles were imported into the Thomson Data Analyzer (TDA) software.

Results: The visualizing network of the collaborative researchers was analyzed by Ucinet 6 software. Main research topics and future focuses were explored by co-word and cluster analysis. The characteristics of these research articles were summarized. The number of published articles has increased from five for the period 1973-1978 to 89 for the period 2009-2014. Tobacco smoke pollution, smoke and air PM were the most studied targets in this research field. Coronary disease was the top health outcome posed by PM exposure. The aorta and endothelium vascular were the principal locations of atherosclerotic lesions, which were enhanced by PM exposure. Oxidative stress and inflammation were of special concern in the current mechanistic research system. The top high-frequency MeSH terms were clustered, and four popular topics were further presented.

Conclusion: Based on the quantitative analysis of bibliographic information and MeSH terms, we were able to define the study characteristics and popular topics in the field of PM and atherosclerosis. Our analysis would provide a comprehensive background reference for researchers in this field of study.

Keywords: Atherosclerosis; Bibliometric analysis; Particulate matter; Popular topics; Research tendency.

Fig. 1

Characteristics of published articles on the study of PM exposure-related arteriosclerosis. The numbers of papers for every 6-year segment from 1973 to 2014 are shown in (a). The numbers of papers of the top authors, journals and countries are shown in (b), (c) and (d), respectively. The trends of published articles for the top eight countries during the period 1973–2014 are shown in (e)

Fig. 2

Collaborative relationship network of the top 50 researchers. The size of the nodes represents the number of papers. The size of the lines represents the close degree of co-authors. The shapes of the nodes represent different countries (circle represents the US, down-triangle represents Germany, box represents Canada, up-triangle represents Finland, and diamond represents UK)