Bibliometric analysis on infective endocarditis

Abstract

Introduction: Although infective endocarditis (IE) is rare disease, this disease has importance due to its high morbidity and mortality rates. The exact incidence is not known as it is not a reportable disease. Unlike developed countries, the disease affects the young more than the elderly in developing countries. Most of the time, the diagnosis cannot be made at the first examination and the disease is often overlooked. In order to reduce the mortality and morbidity of this disease, it is important to quickly recognize the disease by following current diagnosis and treatment methods, to identify the causative agent and to treat accordingly. Both the epidemiology and the management of IE are changing due to medical advances. This situation may also be reflected in scientific publications. We aimed to analyze the global researches on IE. Material and methods: The Scopus database was searched for bibliometric analysis without selecting document type. Data were retrieved for the time period January 1, 1940 and Semptember 26, 2021, containing the keywords " Infective’’ and’’endocarditis " in their title. Results: 7911 publications were included in the study. The first publication was made in the year 1891. Most of the publications were research articles [n=5784 (73.11%)] and were from the United States of America (USA) [n =1622 (20.50%)]. Japan, France, United Kingdom and Spain were also in the top 5 publishing countries on IE. Conclusions: Infective endocarditis is still an important reason of mortality, and there are many unanswered questions about the managament and preventation of this disease. This situation reflected the scientific publications. Since this is a global problem, not just some developed countries involved in the IE research, also more countries should be encouraged to participate the studies on IE.