Emerging Insights in Thyroid Eye Disease Research from 2010 to 2022: Trends, Hot Spots, and Research Situation

Thyroid eye disease, the most frequent extra-thyroid manifestation of Graves' disease, has puzzled physicians and scientists and could potentially make patients sight-threatened. This study aimed to aid researchers and readers in this field to improve their understanding of thyroid eye disease research trends and provide ideas for future research from unique perspectives.

The top 100 most-cited papers on Graves' ophthalmopathy from January 1, 2010, to December 31, 2022, were retrieved from the Web of Science Core Collection database. Two authors defined and analyzed these data independently via CiteSpace, Vosviewer, and Tableau.

A total of 1861 publications linked with Graves' ophthalmopathy research were identified. All of these 100 top-cited papers were published between 2010 and 2022, and the United States of America (USA), Italy, Germany, England, Netherlands, and China made significant contributions to Graves' ophthalmopathy research. The journal with the highest number of published papers is the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism (n = 22). The USA was the most productive country in this topic (n = 29). The Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz had the largest number of publications (n = 8) and citations (n = 1610). The most cited article was 'MECHANISMS OF DISEASE Graves' Ophthalmopathy'. The clustered network and timeline of keywords showed the prevalence, diagnosis, and treatment of thyroid eye disease, which were the research core themes during the past 12 years.

This study provided insights into the most influential studies related to thyroid eye disease via analyzing the top 100 most-cited papers in thyroid eye disease research.