Global research trends and hotspots in bronchiectasis: a bibliometric analysis

Bronchiectasis is characterized by chronic cough and bronchial dilation. It has evolved from an orphan disease to a common condition, with a long history of research. This study employed bibliometric and visualization analyses to comprehensively examine the research dynamics, hotspots, and development trends in bronchiectasis research.

Articles on bronchiectasis published between 2005 and 2024 were collected from the Web of Science Core Collection (WoSCC). The co-occurrence and clustering of keywords, co-citations of literature, and cooperation relationships among countries and institutions were analyzed and visualized via R-Bibliometric and VOSviewer.

A total of 127 countries/regions participated in the research on bronchiectasis, with 6,331 articles included in the analysis, published in 1,350 journals. The results showed that the number of research achievements on bronchiectasis had been increasing over the past 20 years. The United States of America was the country with the highest number of publications and citations. The top high-frequency keywords are sorted by frequency of occurrence: "bronchiectasis", "cystic fibrosis", "COPD", "CT", "asthma", "children", "primary ciliary dyskinesia", "exacerbation", "Pseudomonas aeruginosa", and "interstitial lung disease". The co-citation analysis suggested that the co-cited literature primarily focused on the establishment and evolution of the Bronchiectasis Severity Index, as well as the publication of guidelines for bronchiectasis.

Research in the field of bronchiectasis is growing rapidly. The causes of decreased respiratory function might be the focus of subsequent research and the direction of development. This study encapsulates the developmental trajectories in the realm of bronchiectasis research, offering references for ongoing and forthcoming studies relevant to bronchiectasis.