Mapping the structure of atherosclerosis biomarker research from 2012-2022

Background: Atherosclerosis（AS）is a common chronic vascular inflammatory condition. Early detection and diagnosis are important for reducing residual risk.Biomarkers can reveal the diagnosis, prognosis and treatment characteristics. In recent years, a number of studies have been carried out to search for biomarkers with high sensitivity and specificity for the diagnosis of AS, but there are still no such studies. This paper systematically reviews studies related to atherosclerosis biomarkers to provide guidance for further research. Objective: We conducted a bibliometric analysis of the scientific publications in the last 10 years to identify the key progress, hotspots and emerging trends related to atherosclerosis biomarkers. Methods: Original studies and reviews regarding to atherosclerosis biomarkers were retrieved from the Web of Science core collection(WoSCC) database. Microsoft Excel 2019,CiteSpace6.1,VOSviewer1.6.16 and bibliometrix were used to map the annual publication,major journals and performed visualization analysis of keyword co-occurrence,cluster,timeline and keyword burst. Results: A total of 3,381 articles were finally included. The United States (26.09%) and China (18.87%),accounted for nearly half of the world’s publications. Johns Hopkins University, Harvard Medical School and the University of Washington were the most common publication institutions. Ballantyne christie M, Blaha michael J and Budoff matthew J had the most publications in this field. Articles in this area have been widely published in Atherosclerosis, PlOS One, Journal Of The American Heart Association.All the studies calculated by keyword co-occurrence were divided into four clusters: “atherosclerosis”, “risk”, “coronary heart disease”and“cardiovascular disease”. Hot topics mainly focused on “Pulse wave velocity”, “C-reactive protein”,“intimal media “Non-coding RNAs” ,“extracellular vesicles” and“neutrophil extracellular traps” were identified as the potential trends. Conclusions: The research trend of atherosclerosis biomarkers is manifested in the gradual deepening of the research content and the development toward a more detailed level. However, there are still some problems, such as a lack of high-quality research and relatively simple methods.