Trends in Congenital Insensitivity to Pain with Anhidrosis: A Bibliometric Analysis from 2000 to 2021

Congenital insensitivity to pain with anhidrosis (CIPA) is a very rare inherited autosomal recessive disease that has multiple clinical manifestations. Since its symptoms are related to different systems, this disorder has been investigated on a variety of topics. To better understand publications about CIPA, we conducted a bibliometric study to evaluate research publications on CIPA from 2000 to 2021, and delineate the key contributions in terms of countries, authors and sources.

Quantitative analysis of publications on CIPA from 2000 to 2021 was interpreted and graphed through the Science Citation Index Expanded (SCIE) of Web of Science (WOS) Core Collection. The bibliometric package in R 4.1.1, VOSviewer 1.6.18, and GraphPad Prism 8.4 were used to conduct the bibliometric analysis.

From 2000 to 2021, a total of 163 publications were retrieved. China had the largest number of publications (n = 31), while Japan had the highest number of citations (621 citations). Levy J and Indo Y were perhaps the most impactful researchers in the field of CIPA. The co-authorship of authors and institutions indicated little cooperation on CIPA research between different countries. Annals of Neurology (n=5) and Nature Genetics (120 citations) were the most productive and cited journals, respectively, and the top 10 local cited references clarified the theoretical basis of the CIPA research area. Furthermore, the important topics on CIPA mainly include NTRK1 mutations and nerve growth factor (NGF).

Based on the bibliometric analysis, we have a comprehensive view of the global status of CIPA research, and the results indicate that CIPA needs more attention and cooperation to facilitate the study of its pathological mechanisms.