A Bibliometric Analysis of coronary microcirculation over a 30-Year Period

Abstract Coronary microcirculation has a fundamental role in the regulation of coronary blood flow in response to cardiac requirements, which has aroused wide concerns in basic science and clinical cardiovascular research. A comprehensive understanding of the development status of this field is conducive to its improvement. We aimed to analyze coronary microcirculation-associated literatures over 30 years and provide insightful information on the evolutionary path, frontier research hotspots, and future developmental trends. Publications were retrieved from the Web of Science Core Collection (WoSCC). VOSviewer was used to perform co-occurrence analyses for countries/regions, institutions, and authors and to generate visualized collaboration network maps. CiteSpace was used to analyze the raw data and to visualize the knowledge map derived from reference co-citation analysis, burst references, and keywords detection. The collected 11,718 publications showed an annually increasing trend. The United States and Harvard University ranked at the top among all the countries and institutions. The majority of articles were published in Circulation, and it also was the most co-cited journal. Co-citation analysis, burst detection, and alluvial flow map revealed that thematic hotspots and frontiers on coronary microcirculation were focused on coronary microvascular dysfunction, magnetic resonance imaging, fractional flow reserve, STEMI, and heart failure. Additionally, keywords burst showed that the prognostic value and management were current knowledge gaps and future directions. Coronary microcirculation presented a research hotspot relevant wide spectrum of clinical cardiovascular diseases. The definite diagnostics and prognostics are particularly valued. The protection of cardiovascular events that influence clinical outcomes should be an insightful concern in the future. Multidisciplinary collaborations will provide significant advances for the development of coronary microcirculation.