Clinical Application of MRI in Coronavirus Disease 2019: A Bibliometric Analysis

Currently, coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) continues to remain in the pandemic stage, leading to severe challenges in the global public healthcare system. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) methods have played an important role in the diagnosis of COVID-19 and the structural evaluation of the affected organs. Reviewing and summarizing the application of MRI has significant clinical implications for COVID-19.

The study aimed to analyze literature related to the application of MRI in COVID-19 using bibliometric tools, to explore the research status, hotspots, and developmental trends in this field, and to provide a reference for the application of MRI in the clinical diagnosis and evaluation of COVID-19.

We used the Web of Science Core Collection database to search and collect relevant literature on the use of MRI in COVID-19. The authors, institutes, countries, journals, and keyword modules of the bibliometric analysis software CiteSpace and VOSviewer were used to analyze and plot the network map.

A total of 1506 relevant articles were shortlisted through the search; the earliest study was published in 2019, showing an overall upward trend every year. The research was mainly presented as published articles. Clinical neurology was found to be the primary discipline. The United States had the highest publication volume and influence in this field. Countries around the world cooperated more closely. The Cureus Journal of Medical Science was the main periodical to publish articles. Institutes, such as Harvard Medical School, Mayo Clinic, and Massachusetts General Hospital, have published a large number of papers. Some of the high-frequency keywords were "COVID-19", "SARS-CoV-2", "magnetic resonance", "myocarditis", and "cardiac magnetic resonance imaging". The keyword clustering study showed that the current research mainly focuses on five "hot" directions.

There is a need to strengthen cross-teamwork and multidisciplinary collaboration in the future to completely explore the positive role of MRI in COVID-19 and to discover breakthroughs for the challenges in the clinical diagnosis and treatment of COVID-19.