Bibliometric analysis of lung transplantation research articles

BACKGROUND

In the last 30 years lung transplantation has proven to be a lifesaving therapeutic option for patients with end-stage lung disease. The objective of this study was to perform a bibliometric analysis of lung transplantation research articles.

METHOD

A bibliometric evaluation of the evolution of scientific production in the field of lung transplantations between 1989 and 2009 was conducted using the ISI Web of Science. The search terms selected were "lung transplant" OR "pulmonary transplant". Specific features including year of publication, language, geographical distribution, first author, main journal publishing these articles, journals publishing highly cited articles, and institutional affiliation were analyzed. The citation characteristics of articles were additionally analyzed.

RESULTS

A total of 6409 (58.0 %) research articles were found. The time trend of the number of articles showed an increase of more than 6.81 between 1989 and 2009. North America contributed 50.4 % and Europe contributed 46.0 % of published articles. The greatest number of contributions came from the USA (43.6 %), followed by England (9.1 %) and Germany (8.6 %). There were 104 522 citations of these articles by 25 July 2010. The average citation per article was 16.31. The New England Journal of Medicine ranked first with regard to the number of articles and the number of highly cited articles. G. A. Patterson, Washington University, and the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) were the top author, institution and funding agency, respectively.

CONCLUSION

The number of publications and the scientific interest in lung transplantation has increased rapidly in recent years. Citations of articles published in the field of lung transplantation are increasing and the numbers of uncited articles are fewer compared to the average citations of articles and uncited articles in the field of medicine.

Disability in Indian patients with haemophilia

Chronic shortage of clotting factor concentrates, exorbitant treatment costs and the poor economic status of patients makes disability an inevitable consequence of haemophilia in India. The prevalence and risk factors for disability were studied in 148 patients with severe haemophilia A registered at five haemophilia clinics in the country. Disability was measured using a scoring method that used a compilation of functional ability, mobility and range-of-motion scores for each patient. Patients ranged in age from 5 to 55 years. Only nine of 148 patients were free of disability. The proportion of disability free patients in the 5-12, 13-24 and 25+ age groups were 14.3%, 4.4% and 0% respectively. The risk factors significantly associated with disability were patients age, socio-economic status, number of persons in the family, family history of haemophilia, frequency of physiotherapy exercises, home use of coagulation factor concentrate and type of blood product(s) used, that is clotting factor concentrate or cryoprecipitate. The study highlights the need to provide coagulation factor concentrates in sufficient amounts to prevent disability, the beneficial role of physiotherapy exercises and the advantage of older patients as peer educators for younger patients. The most important utility of the data is to demonstrate the widespread prevalence of disability amongst patients, its social costs in terms of incomplete education and unemployment, which justifies the need to include haemophilia as one of the conditions under the Disability Act of India.