[¹⁸F]sodium fluoride positron emission tomography: a systematic bibliometric review from 2008 to 2022

As a noninvasive diagnostic tool, fluorine-18-labelled sodium fluoride positron emission tomography ([¹⁸F]NaF PET) has been increasingly applied in clinical practice due to its excellent imaging performance, attracting more attention from clinical practitioners. However, with the continuous development of technology and growth of knowledge, the field of [¹⁸F]NaF PET is changing. Nevertheless, few studies have conducted quantitative analyses of the literature in this field. Therefore, in this study, we used bibliometric methods to analyze the trends, content distribution, and frontiers of this field from multiple perspectives, including social and international structure, conceptual structure, and intellectual structure.

This study used the Web of Science (WOS) core database as the data source and retrieved literature related to [¹⁸F]NaF PET between 2008 and 2022. CiteSpace and VOSviewer software were then employed for bibliometric analysis. This study performed co-occurrence analysis and citation analysis to investigate the characteristics of [¹⁸F]NaF PET in 3 aspects.

A total of 682 articles related to [¹⁸F]NaF PET were collected during the period from 2008 to 2022. The author, Alavi, had the highest number of publications (67 articles). In terms of institutions, the University of Edinburgh had the highest number of publications (64 articles). The United States (300 articles) was the country with the highest number of published articles. Keyword co-occurrence analysis revealed that [¹⁸F]NaF PET-related technologies, bone metastasis (prostate cancer and breast cancer), and atherosclerosis were prominent research directions in this field. In terms of highly cited authors, Even-Sapir had the highest citation count (188 citations). Regarding highly cited journals, the Journal of Nuclear Medicine ranked as the most highly cited journal. The literature co-citation clustering and timeline graph showed that atherosclerotic plaques, bone metastasis, and the clinical applications of [¹⁸F]NaF PET were topics of active research in this field.

There has been an increase in the literature published in the field of [¹⁸F]NaF PET from 2008 to 2022. The United States holds a prominent position in the field of [¹⁸F]NaF PET. Arteriosclerosis and bone metastasis are the main topics in this field and at the forefront of research.