Bibliometric Analysis of the Top 100 Influential Studies on Carotid Artery Stenting

Artery stenting is an effective therapy for carotid artery stenosis to prevent ischemic stroke. We aimed to identify and analyze the 100 top-cited reports on carotid artery stenting (CAS) to review the achievements and developments in this field.

The Web of Knowledge database was searched from its inception up to May 3, 2018, using the terms "carotid artery stenting" and "CAS." The 100 most-cited reports were extracted to analyze their characteristics.

The number of citations for the 100 most-cited reports ranged from 120 to 1813, with an accumulated citation number of 26,265. These reports were from 13 countries, with the most publications from the United States (n = 62), followed by the United Kingdom (n = 11), Germany (n = 6), and Italy (n = 6). Stroke (n = 21) was the lead-producing journal, followed by the Journal of Vascular Surgery (n = 11) and Journal of the American College of Cardiology (n = 10). Those reports with a greater impact factor were likely to be cited more often (P < 0.0001). These reports were categorized as clinical trial (n = 74), review (n = 13), basic study (n = 5), guideline (n = 5), commentary (n = 1), expert consensus (n = 1), and protocol (n = 1).

The results of the present study provide scientific data for CAS. The United States contributed the most reports. Stroke was the lead productive journal. Those reports with a greater impact factor were likely to be cited more often.