A bibliometric analysis of research trends on left ventricular dysfunction and exercise among individuals with type 2 diabetes mellitus

Abstract

Background: Diabetic cardiomyopathy (DCM) is a severe outcome of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and a major global health concern. The overall impact of T2DM on the heart is demonstrated by echocardiographic measurements. Exercise helps reduce cardiovascular disease risk and improves glycemic management in T2DM. The objective of the present bibliometric study was to map the research trends on left ventricular dysfunction and exercise among T2DM.

Materials and methods: The comprehensive search was conducted in the SCOPUS database, with the keywords "type 2 diabetes", "diabetic cardiomyopathy", "exercise," and "left ventricular function", with BOOLEAN Operators AND, OR. The search period ranged from 1984 to November 2023. The data was exported to VOS Viewer(1.6.20) for analysis.

Results: Sixty-nine documents were retrieved from the database search. A steady rise was observed in the number of documents per year, between 1 and 5. The following countries published the maximum number of documents: the USA, Italy, Australia, and the UK. 79.7% of documents were original articles, 18.8% were reviews, and 1.4% were editorials. Most studies belonged to categories, namely medicine(69.9%), biochemistry(15.1%), pharmacology (8.6%) and health professions (2.2%). The network analysis was performed to explore the association between the studies based on co-authorship, citation analysis, and co-occurrence.

Conclusion: The bibliometric analysis showed the maximum number of publications belonged to high-income countries, with smaller contributions from low-middle-income countries (LMICs), including the Indian subcontinent. There is a need to explore the area of exercise and left ventricular dysfunction in T2DM as exercise can act as a valuable tool in LMICs where the burden of T2DM is increasing.

Keywords: Diabetic heart disease; Exercise training; Left ventricle; Type 2 diabetes.