Related Experiment Video
Updated: Aug 26, 2026

In Silico Clinical Trials for Cardiovascular Disease
Published on: May 27, 2022
Quantifying the inclusion of cardiovascular research into clinical guidelines
Johan Skov Bundgaard1,2, Jonas Skjold Raaschou-Pedersen3, Kasper Iversen4
1Department of Cardiology, Copenhagen University Hospital, Rigshospitalet, Blegdamsvej 9, Copenhagen, Denmark. johan.skov.bundgaard@regionh.dk.
Background:
The number of cardiovascular research articles is growing rapidly, but the subsequent incorporation into newer guidelines remains uncertain. We aimed to quantify the proportion of topic-relevant literature published between consecutive European Society of Cardiology (ESC) guideline editions that was cited in the later edition.
Methods:
Using PubMed Medical Subject Heading (MeSH) searches and OpenAlex citation graphs, we identified all publications published between two ESC guideline editions across eight topics. We quantified the proportion of inter-guideline publications that were cited in the subsequent guideline.
Results:
Across the eight topics, a mean of 2.2% (SD = 2.0) of inter-guideline publications were directly cited in the successive guideline. Clinical trials were more frequently cited than non-clinical trial publications (8.5% [SD = 6.8] vs 2.0% [SD = 2.0]) in a topic-adjusted logistic regression; the odds were roughly fivefold higher (OR 5.45, 95% CI 4.87-6.10).
Conclusions:
ESC guidelines cite a small proportion of the cardiovascular literature published since their preceding edition, drawing disproportionately on clinical trials.
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