Global research trends in the medical therapy of pulmonary arterial hypertension 2000-2014.

Background: Pulmonary arterial hypertension is a progressive disease of the pulmonary vasculature that affects more than 200.000 patients worldwide. Without medical treatment it leads to right heart failure and death. Extensive fundamental and clinical research has been performed throughout the globe to modify the disease and improve survival. Methods: We performed a bibliometric study on medical treatment for pulmonary arterial hypertension to identify study characteristics, impact factors and the countries of origin of basic and clinical studies that were published between 2000 and 2014. For visualization of the obtained data density equalizing maps were prepared. Results: A total of 681 studies were eligible, of these 56% were clinical studies that have included a total of 30960 patients. Most studies were performed on endothelin receptor antagonists, followed by prostacyclins and phosphodiesterase type 5 inhibitors. Impact factors did not differ between clinical and basic science studies. The United States for clinical studies, and China for basic science studies were identified as main contributors to the global scientific output. Conclusions: This first bibliometric study in the field of pulmonary arterial hypertension shows that a significant amount of scientific research was performed within the last 14 years mainly in North America, Asia and Europe. As current trends in this field of research we identified combination therapies and Asian countries being a new hatchery for emerging experimental and clinical studies. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.