The progress of percutaneous left atrial appendage occlusion: A bibliometric analysis from 1994 to 2022.

BACKGROUND: Atrial fibrillation is the most common cardiac arrhythmia, affecting 32 million individuals worldwide. Although atrial fibrillation has been studied for decades, a comprehensive analysis using bibliometrics has not been performed for atrial fibrillation-left atrial appendage occlusion (LAAO). Therefore, we analyzed the scientific outputs of global LAAO research and explored the current research status and hotpots from 1994 to 2022. METHODS: We searched the Web of Science core collection for publications related to LAAO that were published between 1994 and 2022. We then performed bibliometric analysis and visualization using Microsoft Excel 2021, Bibliometric (https://bibliometric.com), VOSviewer (version 1.6.19), CiteSpace (version 6.2. R2), and the Bibliometrix 4.0.0 Package (https://www.bibliometrix.org) based on the R language were used to perform the bibliometric analysis, trend and emerging foci of LAAO in the past 29 years, including author, country, institution, journal distribution, article citations, and keywords. In total, we identified 1285 eligible publications in the field of LAAO, with an increasing trend in the annual number of publications. RESULTS: The United States is the country with the most published articles in this field, while the United Kingdom is the country with the most cited literature. Mayo Clinic, from the United States, has the most publications in this area and Horst Sievert from Germany had the highest number of individual publications. The analysis of keywords showed that fibrillation, stroke, safety, oral anticoagulants, and watchman were the main hotpots and frontier directions of LAAO. Surgical treatment of nonvalvular atrial fibrillation, upgrading of related surgical instruments, and anticoagulation regimen after surgical treatment are the major research frontiers. CONCLUSION: We show that the research of percutaneous LAAO has been increasing rapidly over the last decade. Our aim was to overview past studies in the field of LAAO, to grasp the frame of LAAO research, and identify new perspectives for future research.

Causal association between basal metabolic rate and risk of cardiovascular diseases: a univariable and multivariable Mendelian randomization study.

Basal metabolic rate (BMR) is associated with cardiovascular health; however, the causal relationship between BMR and the risk of cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) remains unclear. This study aimed to investigate the potential causal relationship of BMR on common CVDs including aortic aneurysm (AA), atrial fibrillation and flutter (AFF), calcific aortic valvular stenosis (CAVS), heart failure (HF), and myocardial infarction (MI) by Mendelian randomization (MR). The univariable MR analysis using inverse variance weighted (IVW) model as the primary analysis method revealed that genetically predicted higher BMR causally increased the risk of AA [IVW odds ratio (OR) = 1.34, 95% confidence interval CI 1.09-1.65, p = 0.00527], AFF (IVW OR = 1.87, 95% CI 1.65-2.12, p = 1.697 × E-22), and HF (IVW OR = 1.35, 95% CI 1.20-1.51, p = 2.364 × E-07), while causally decreasing the risk of MI (IVW OR = 0.83, 95% CI 0.73-0.93, p = 0.00255). In the multivariable MR analysis, which controlled for common cardiovascular risk factors, direct effects of BMR on an increased risk of AA and AFF, as well as a decreased risk of MI, but an attenuated causal effect on HF, were observed. In conclusion, the current MR study provides evidence for a causal relationship between BMR and the risk of AA, AFF, HF, and MI.