[Visualization of research on Chinese medicine-induced kidney injury by CiteSpace]

This study aimed to provide researchers with a better understanding of the research status, progress and problems of Chinese medicine-induced kidney injury. The mapping knowledge domain(MKD) was chosen to visualize the research process, hotspots,and frontiers, thus providing a reference for follow-up research. The relevant articles were retrieved from China National Knowledge Infrastructure(CNKI) from its inception to November 20, 2020, and 683 were finally included for visualization, with a knowledge map covering the keywords, research institutions and authors plotted by Cite Space. Since 2006, the annual number of published articles regarding Chinese medicine-induced kidney injury has steadily declined. The top five keywords sorted by frequency of co-occurrence were tubulointerstitial nephritis(TIN), aristolochic acid(AA), Akebiae Caulis, experimental research, and descriptive research. Akebiae Caulis appeared at the highest frequency of co-occurrence among Chinese medicines and exhibited the highest burst intensity. The burst ended in 2020, when the Chinese medicine with the highest burst intensity changed to Tripterygii wilfordii and its preparations. It could be seen that Akebiae Caulis was the hotspot in the research of Chinese medicine-induced kidney injury, and T. wilfordii became the research frontier. The current research has mainly focused on " organic anion transporters" and " metabolomics". The decline in articles about Chinese medicine-induced kidney injury was attributed to the reduced clinical case reports after the in-depth study of Chinese medicine-induced kidney injury. However, more clinical studies need to be conducted based on the concept and method of pharmacovigilance to construct a pharmacovigilance system of Chinese medicine for actively and passively monitoring and collecting the clinical cases with Chinese medicine-induced kidney injury, figuring out the incidence and characteristics of adverse reactions caused by Chinese medicine, and carrying out comprehensive and multi-dimensional safety research.