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. 2025 Aug 18:12:1591906.
doi: 10.3389/fmed.2025.1591906. eCollection 2025.

Research status and trends of drug-coated balloons in coronary artery disease: a bibliometric analysis

Yue Yu  1 , Yuemiao Jiao  1 , Lüya Wang  1 , Ming Zhang  1 , Chengqian Yin  1
Affiliations

Research status and trends of drug-coated balloons in coronary artery disease: a bibliometric analysis

Yue Yu et al. Front Med (Lausanne). .

Abstract

Objective: Drug-coated balloons have emerged as a pivotal alternative to drug-eluting stents in the interventional management of coronary artery disease, particularly showing clinical advantages in the treatment of in-stent restenosis and small-vessel disease. This study provides a systematic bibliometric analysis of publication trends, research hotspots, and future directions in DCB-related CAD research from 2004 to June 2025.

Methods: A total of 1,092 publications indexed in the Web of Science, Scopus, and PubMed databases were analyzed using CiteSpace, VOSviewer, and bibliometrix. Inclusion criteria were English-language papers, while case reports, conference proceedings, news articles, and duplicate publications were excluded. The analysis focused on publication trends, country/institutional contributions, author collaboration networks, journal analysis, co-citation literature, and keyword evolution.

Results: Three distinct developmental phases of DCB research were identified: (1) device optimization (2004-2010), (2) clinical validation (2010-2017), and (3) application to complex lesions (2018-present). China led in publication volume (n = 180), while Germany and Italy demonstrated the highest research impact. Leading research institutions included Capital Medical University and Friedrich Schiller University of Jena. High-impact journals such as JACC: Cardiovascular Interventions and EuroIntervention served as key publication venues, with a focus on clinical outcomes and intravascular imaging. Keyword analysis revealed a growing emphasis on intravascular imaging modalities and emerging drug-coating technologies in recent research.

Conclusion: DCB are now established as a standard of care for ISR (Class IA recommendation), with accumulating evidence supporting their efficacy and safety in small-vessel coronary disease. However, their application in complex lesions requires further validation through multicenter randomized controlled trials. Future research should focus on optimizing drug coating technologies, refining imaging-guided strategies, exploring new anti-proliferative drugs, and establishing more precise eligibility criteria for treatment.

Keywords: bibliometric analysis; coronary artery disease; drug-coated balloon; percutaneous coronary intervention; research trends.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Flowchart of literature search and screening process.
Figure 2
Figure 2
The geographical distribution and visualization of countries on the research of drug-coated balloons in coronary artery disease.
Figure 3
Figure 3
The network map of authors engaged in drug-coated balloons in the field of coronary artery disease. (A) Co-authorship Map. (B) Co-citation Map.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Visualization map of keyword in DCB research for coronary artery disease. (A) Keyword co-occurrence map. (B) Keyword clustering map. (C) Keyword timeline map.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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