Bibliometric Analysis of the Top 100 Influential Studies on Carotid Artery Stenting.

BACKGROUND: Artery stenting is an effective therapy for carotid artery stenosis to prevent ischemic stroke. We aimed to identify and analyze the 100 top-cited reports on carotid artery stenting (CAS) to review the achievements and developments in this field. METHODS: The Web of Knowledge database was searched from its inception up to May 3, 2018, using the terms "carotid artery stenting" and "CAS." The 100 most-cited reports were extracted to analyze their characteristics. RESULTS: The number of citations for the 100 most-cited reports ranged from 120 to 1813, with an accumulated citation number of 26,265. These reports were from 13 countries, with the most publications from the United States (n = 62), followed by the United Kingdom (n = 11), Germany (n = 6), and Italy (n = 6). Stroke (n = 21) was the lead-producing journal, followed by the Journal of Vascular Surgery (n = 11) and Journal of the American College of Cardiology (n = 10). Those reports with a greater impact factor were likely to be cited more often (P < 0.0001). These reports were categorized as clinical trial (n = 74), review (n = 13), basic study (n = 5), guideline (n = 5), commentary (n = 1), expert consensus (n = 1), and protocol (n = 1). CONCLUSIONS: The results of the present study provide scientific data for CAS. The United States contributed the most reports. Stroke was the lead productive journal. Those reports with a greater impact factor were likely to be cited more often.