Relationship Between COPD and GERD: A Bibliometrics Analysis

A growing body of evidence links chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) to gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD). In spite of the lack of understanding of the specific cause-effect relationship between COPD and GERD, GERD has been shown to be a significant predictor of acute exacerbations of COPD. In this study, we examined the evolution of the relationship between COPD and GERD over the past decades and provided valuable insights into this topic.

The Web of Science Core Collection (WoSCC) was searched since its inception until 19 August 2022 to obtain publications related to COPD and GERD. The data was analyzed in Microsoft Excel (version 2021), HisCite (version 2.1), Scimago Graphica (version 1.0.23), VOSviewer (1.6.17), and CiteSpace (version 5.8.R3).

We extracted 545 documents from the WoSCC database. Since 2002, there have been rapid increases in publications. Among countries and institutions, the United States and the University of Manchester were most prolific. The most cited journal was Chest, while Respiratory Medicine had the most publications. Among 2870 related authors, Hasenfuss, Gerd, Lange, Peter, and Martinez, Gerd were the top 3 contributing authors in this field. Aside from "gastroesophageal reflux disease" and "chronic obstructive pulmonary disease", the terms "quality of life", "cough", and "inflammation" were frequently occurred in the title and abstract of articles. Keywords co-occurrence overlay visualization indicated that "refractory chronic cough" was hot topics in recent years.

Research on COPD and GERD has flourished, and its content topics have become more in-depth over time. In the future, this hot topic deserves more attention.