Characteristics from the 100 most influential articles on carotid stenosis

Abstract

Background: There are three main competing treatment modalities for carotid artery stenosis (CS), i.e., carotid endarterectomy (CEA), carotid artery angioplasty/stenting (CAS), and medical treatment. In this study, we analyzed the performance and trends of CS research through bibliometric analysis. Methods: We searched the Thomson Reuters Web of Science citation indexing database. The key words used in the search were "carotid artery" and "carotid stenosis". The top 100 most cited manuscripts (T100) were analyzed based on title, author, institution, country of origin, year of publication, and topic. Results: The T100 were published between 1990 and 2016. The Stroke published the most manuscripts (n=22) and the New England Journal of Medicine was the most cited (n=15,113). The United States had the greatest number of publications (n=43), and the University of Oxford was the institution with the most publications (n=7). Peter M. Rothwell was the corresponding author with the most publications (n=10). The main topics were in the following categories: CEA (n=22), medication (n=11), CAS (n=9), diagnosis (n=44), and CEA vs. CAS (n=14). Conclusions: This bibliometric analysis of CS research provides insight into publication trends and perspective on the treatment of CS.