Scientometric Evaluation of the Itch Mite, Sarcoptes scabiei (Acari: Sarcoptidae): The Last Four Decades of Global Academic Output on Scabies.

OBJECTIVE: Scabiosis, the infestation of the skin with Sarcoptes scabiei, is a neglected tropical disease, with at least 200 million people being infested with the parasite at any time. It is estimated that scabies is responsible for 0.07% of the total burden of disease worldwide. Objective of this study is to perform a scientometric analysis of S. scabiei literature using the Web of Science Core Collection database for the years 1981-2020. METHODS: All documents indexed between 1981 and 2020 in scabies literature were analyzed by using a search string including keywords of "scabies", "Sarcoptes scabiei" and "S. scabiei" in Web of Science Core Collection database. We excluded all materials including data on the bacterium species named Streptomyces scabies and Streptomyces scabiei. RESULTS: Overall, 2,933 articles were retrieved on scabies, 66.3% of which were original article. With 663 publications the USA was the most productive country, while The International Journal of Dermatology was the journal with the highest number of publications on scabies. Half of the most productive institutions and seven of the top ten prolific authors were also from Australia. The National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia was the most supportive funding agency. With 4,706 citations, 2020 was the year with most references on scabies. The most cited publication was "The Global Burden of Skin Disease in 2010: An Analysis of the Prevalence and Impact of Skin Conditions" by Hay et al. in the Journal of Investigative Dermatology with a total of 565 citations. The most collaborative country was Australia and the most cooperative institution was the University of Melbourne. CONCLUSION: The majority of the studies were done in a given country while multicenter studies are very rare. It is recommended that more studies should be conducted on scabiosis in developing countries where the problem of scabies is the biggest.

Scientometric analysis of trends in global research on acne treatment.

Acne or acne vulgaris is the most common chronic inflammatory disease of the sebaceous follicles. Objectives: The present study aims to identify the main lines of research in the field of acne treatment using reproducible scientometric methods. In this article, we reviewed the following research trends: facial acne, different antibiotics, retinoids, anti-inflammatory drugs, epidermal growth factor receptor inhibitors therapy, and associated diseases. Methods: The analysis of publications from the PubMed collection was carried out from 1871 to 2022. All data were analyzed using Microsoft Excel. The evolution of the terminological portrait of the disease is shown. Results: Trends in the use of various groups of antibiotics, retinoids, anti-inflammatory drugs, and photodynamic therapy for acne treatment have been found. There is a growing interest in clindamycin and doxycycline (polynomial and exponential growth, respectively). The effects of isotretinoin are also being studied more frequently (active linear growth). The publication of studies on spironolactone is increasing (linear growth). There is also a steady interest in the use of epidermal growth factor receptor inhibitors in the recent years. There is active research on acne and polycystic ovary syndrome (exponential growth). Limitations: Only articles in English were selected. The most frequent terms were considered. Conclusions: The dynamics of publication activity in the field of acne was considered. The aim of the current scientometric study was to analyze the global trends in acne treatments. The trend analysis made it possible to identify the most explored areas of research, as well as indicate those areas in dermatology in which interest is declining.

Enhanced nutrient removal in agro-industrial wastes-amended hybrid floating treatment wetlands treating real sewage: Laboratory microcosms to field-scale studies.

The use of natural agro-industrial materials as suspended fillers (SFs) in floating treatment wetlands (FTWs) to enhance nutrient removal performance has recently been gaining significant attention. However, the knowledge concerning the nutrient removal performance enhancement by different SFs (alone and in mixtures) and the major removal pathways is so far inadequate. The current research, for the first time, carried out a critical analysis using five different natural agro-industrial materials (biochar, zeolite, alum sludge, woodchip, flexible solid packing) as SFs in various FTWs of 20 L microcosm tanks, 450 L outdoor mesocosms, and a field-scale urban pond treating real wastewater over 180 d. The findings demonstrated that the incorporation of SFs in FTWs enhanced the removal performance of total nitrogen (TN) by 20-57% and total phosphorus (TP) by 23-63%. SFs further enhanced macrophyte growth and biomass production, leading to considerable increases in nutrient standing stocks. Although all the hybrid FTWs showed acceptable treatment performances, FTWs set up with mixtures of all five SFs significantly enhanced biofilm formation and enriched the abundances of the microbial community related to nitrification and denitrification processes, supporting the detected excellent N retention. N mass balance assessment demonstrated that nitrification-denitrification was the major N removal pathway in reinforced FTWs, and the high removal efficiency of TP was attributable to the incorporation of SFs into the FTWs. Nutrient removal efficiencies ranked in the following order among the various trials: microcosm scale (TN: 99.3% and TP: 98.4%) > mesocosm scale (TN: 84.0% and TP: 95.0%) > field scale (TN: -15.0-73.7% and TP: -31.5-77.1%). These findings demonstrate that hybrid FTWs could be easily scaled up for the removal of pollutants from eutrophic freshwater systems over the medium term in an environmentally-friendly way in regions with similar environmental conditions. Moreover, it demonstrates hybrid FTW as a novel way of disposing of significant quantities of wastes, showing a win-win means with a huge potential for large-scale application.

The Role of Ischemia-modified Albumin and Ischemia-Modified Albumin to Albumin Ratios in Patients with Alopecia Areata.

INTRODUCTION: OBJECTIVE: To investigate the role of ischemia-modified albumin (IMA) and IMA/albumin levels in patients with AA. METHODS: The present prospective crossectional study includes patients ≥18 who were admitted to the Dermatology and Venerology Department of Hitit University Hospital between April 1, 2021, and September 30, 2021. 70 patients participated in the study (n=34 for the study group and n=36 for the control group). Demographic features, clinical characteristics, IMA, and IMA/albumin levels were compared between the groups. The study group was divided into subgroups based on the number of patches, disease duration, and the number of disease attacks. IMA and IMA/albumin levels were compared between each subgroup. RESULTS: The study and control groups were similar with regard to demographic features and clinical characteristics. Significant differences were observed between the mean IMA and IMA/albumin ratio (p=0.004 and 0.012, respectively). The study subgroups were comparable in the number of patches, disease duration, and number of disease attacks. CONCLUSION: Although oxidative stress is an important component in the etiology of AA, IMA and IMA/albumin may not be useful in the prediction of disease severity in patients with AA.

The effect of COVID-19 on development of hair and nail disorders: a Turkish multicenter, controlled study.

BACKGROUND: A broad spectrum of skin diseases, including hair and nails, can be directly or indirectly triggered by COVID-19. It is aimed to examine the type and frequency of hair and nail disorders after COVID-19 infection. METHODS: This is a multicenter study conducted on consecutive 2171 post-COVID-19 patients. Patients who developed hair and nail disorders and did not develop hair and nail disorders were recruited as subject and control groups. The type and frequency of hair and nail disorders were examined. RESULTS: The rate of the previous admission in hospital due to COVID-19 was statistically significantly more common in patients who developed hair loss after getting infected with COVID-19 (P < 0.001). Telogen effluvium (85%) was the most common hair loss type followed by worsening of androgenetic alopecia (7%) after COVID-19 infection. The mean stress scores during and after getting infected with COVID-19 were 6.88 ± 2.77 and 3.64 ± 3.04, respectively, in the hair loss group and were 5.77 ± 3.18 and 2.81 ± 2.84, respectively, in the control group (P < 0.001, P < 0.001). The frequency of recurrent COVID-19 was statistically significantly higher in men with severe androgenetic alopecia (Grades 4-7 HNS) (P = 0.012; Odds ratio: 2.931 [1.222-7.027]). The most common nail disorders were leukonychia, onycholysis, Beau's lines, onychomadesis, and onychoschisis, respectively. The symptoms of COVID-19 were statistically significantly more common in patients having nail disorders after getting infected with COVID-19 when compared to the control group (P < 0.05). CONCLUSION: The development of both nail and hair disorders after COVID-19 seems to be related to a history of severe COVID-19.

Health and Chinese Beliefs: A Scientometric Analysis of Health Literature Related to Taoism and Confucianism.

Taoism and Confucianism both exited simultaneously as philosophies of living in dynastic China. Although there has been an increasing popularity in scientometric studies, religion and health (R&H) literature lacks a holistic evaluation investigating articles relevant to Taoism and Confucianism. All publications produced in Taoism and Confucianism literature and indexed in Web of Science (WoS) databases between 1975 and 2018 were included in this study. Database search on health and Taoism literature retrieved 199 documents from WoS databases. Main research areas were Psychology, Religion and Behavioral Sciences (24.121, 21.608 and 20.603, respectively). The USA ranked first with 38 papers followed China, Taiwan and the UK (n = 35, 20 and 6 documents, respectively). Hong Kong Polytechnic University from China was the most contributor institution in health and Taoism literature. A total of 448 documents were published in health and Confucianism literature between 1975 and 2018, and original articles covered 93.08% of all literature. China was leading country with 126 articles followed by the USA, South Korea and Taiwan (n = 97, 35 and 35 items, respectively). The most productive institutions were City University of Hong Kong (China), Karolinska Institute (Sweden) and University of Hong Kong (China). Researchers from developing and least developed countries should be encouraged to carry out novel scientometric studies in R&H literature.

Traditional, Complementary and Alternative Medicine in Dermatology: A Scientometric Literature Review.

INTRODUCTION: Scientific literature lacks a scientometric analysis of traditional, complementary and alternative medicine (TCAM) for dermatology. The aim of this study is to investigate the associations between TCAM and dermatology as seen in academic literature published between 1975 and 2018. METHODS: All materials analyzed in this study were collected from 3 major academic databases, namely Web of Science, PubMed and Scopus, and all documents assessed were published between 1975 and 2018. A keyword string of "dermatology" AND ("complementary medicine" OR "alternative medicine" OR "traditional medicine" OR "integrative medicine") was used to search the databases. RESULTS: A total of 316 articles were retrieved from Web of Science, 388 from Scopus and 389 from PubMed. Original articles represented 92.208% of all literature found. In addition, the USA had the highest number of publications with 61 documents, followed by the UK, China and Germany, while only three developing countries were represented in the group of most productive countries. Notably, low income countries were not represented in the list of countries with the highest volume of publications. Of all the institutions in the most represented countries, the University of Oxford was found to be the most productive. The most used keywords in the literature were noted to be "dermatology", "alternative medicine", "traditional medicine" and "psoriasis". CONCLUSION: In view of the underrepresentation of low income developing countries in the productive group, it is suggested that researchers from these countries should be supported to produce novel TCAM studies in dermatology.

Evolution of Telepsychiatry: Scientometric Analysis of Telepsychiatry Publications Between 1986 and 2019.

Introduction: Although telepsychiatry has a long history, medical literature lacks a scientometric study evaluating telepsychiatry publications. The purpose of this study was to perform a holistic analysis of telepsychiatry articles published between 1986 and 2019. Methods: We used the "telepsychiatry" keyword for our search and included all documents indexed in Web of Science (Clarivate Analytics, USA) Core Collection between 1986 and 2019, revealing a total of 1,020 articles, of which only 224 were open access. Results: The peak year for publication was 2015, with 96 articles. The United States ranked first with 601 documents followed by Australia and Canada. The University of California and University of Washington were the most productive institutions and, again, 8 of the 10 leading institutions were from the United States. The peak year for citations was 2019, with a total of 2,080 records. Discussion: We believe that systematic approaches are needed to reveal the positive and negative features of telepsychiatry practice, especially from countries where this method is widely utilized, to elucidate the need for telepsychiatry in other countries/regions and to determine how its use can be increased in regions with limited access to health care workers. Conclusion: Although scientific interest in telepsychiatry appears to have increased almost every year since 1986, it has been observed that this interest is still concentrated in certain countries, such as the United States, Australia, and Canada, indicating that telepsychiatry may not have gained use in other countries.

Holistic Analysis of Coronavirus Literature: A Scientometric Study of the Global Publications Relevant to SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19), MERS-CoV (MERS) and SARS-CoV (SARS).

OBJECTIVES: In late December 2019, a cluster of patients with pneumonia caused by an unknown pathogen was reported from Wuhan, Hubei Province, China. The pathogen has been identified as a novel coronavirus, severe acute respiratory syndrome 2 (SARS-CoV-2) and the disease has been named as coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). The objective of this study was to perform the first holistic scientometric evaluation of coronavirus publications. METHODS: Our main source for this study was Web of Science Collection database. All items published between 1980 and 2019 were included. A distribution map of global production in coronavirus literature and scientometric networks were generated. RESULTS: The United States, China, Germany, the United Kingdom, and Netherlands were the most productive countries. Publications in coronavirus literature have been produced from almost every country in the world, except for some countries in Asia and Africa. CONCLUSION: While in the 1980s, the United States and developed countries from Europe were major source countries and the virus was identified only as an animal disease in the literature and its biological and genetic structure was investigated, in the 2000s, China became a major contributor of coronavirus literature because the SARS outbreak originated from southern China. Almost all most-cited publications in this period are related to SARS and the ACE2 protein.

Correlation study between clinical classification and disability index in a holistic evaluation of acne severity and impact in Turkey.

BACKGROUND: This study provides a comparison between disease severity observed by inspectors and the disease burden assessed by patients is scanty in acne study. METHODS: In a multicenter prospective hospital-based study, modified Comprehensive Acne Severity Scale (mCASS) and Cardiff Acne Disability Index (CADI) were employed to grade disease severity and to determine the quality of life, respectively. The average of the mCASS and CADI scores, with range at 0-25, was termed as Acne Severity and Impact Grading System (ASIG). RESULTS: In 1331 evaluated patients (mean: 21,51±4,93 years), including 306 men and 1025 women, an overall significant, positive correlation was found between ASIG and mCASS (r=0.862), or CADI (r=0.686), respectively (P=0.001 each). Adult women with back acne and adolescent with décolleté expressed greater concern (higher CADI) than the clinical severity (lower mCASS). The overall prevalence of acne in décolleté area, including neck, was 32.3%. CONCLUSIONS: Discrepancies in the acne severity between self-perception and objective evaluation exist in certain subgroups of patients. Décolleté acne deserves special attention in clinical assessment.

The Depigmented Literature: A Holistic Analysis of Global Vitiligo Publications between 1975 and 2017.

BACKGROUND: Vitiligo is a common depigmenting disorder with a prevalence of 0.5-2%. Despite the increasing popularity of bibliometric studies in recent years, medical literature lacks a report investigating bibliometric features of vitiligo literature. AIM: It was aimed to analyze vitiligo literature by evaluating productivity of countries, institutions, and authors, and performing assessment of publication trends, bibliometric networks, and correlations. MATERIAL AND METHODS: We collected all data in this study by searching databases provided by Web of Science. All documents published on vitiligo literature between 1975 and 2017 were included. We performed correlation analyses between productivity and demographical and economical features of the countries publishing vitiligo articles. RESULTS: A total of 7187 documents were detected and 72.2% of which was original article. The peak year for publication number by year was 2016 with 528 articles and the highest number of citations was reported in 2017. The USA was the leading country by total publication number (24.82%) followed by the United Kingdom (UK), India, China, and Italy (10.91%, 8.64%, 7.54%, and 6.87% respectively). Estonia was found to be the most productive country of vitiligo literature (13.01) followed by Netherlands, the UK, and Switzerland (12.64, 11.78, and 9.25, respectively). We found a high correlation between GDP per capita and the productivity of the countries (r = 0.732, P < 0.001). CONCLUSION: As revealed in our study, although vitiligo occurs worldwide, developed countries dominated vitiligo literature. Researchers from developing and least-developed countries should be encouraged and supported to perform novel vitiligo studies.

Global Trends of Botulinum Toxin Literature: A Bibliometric Analysis of Botulinum Toxin Publications Between 1975 and 2017.

BACKGROUND: Botulinum toxin has been effectively used cosmetically and therapeutically for the last decades in a wide range of medical conditions. Although bibliometrics has been a popular and growing study area in recent years, medical literature lacks studies evaluating published botulinum toxin literature. OBJECTIVE: The goal of our study was to evaluate bibliometric features and to perform a detailed trend analysis in the medical literature related to botulinum toxin. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We analyzed all the published documents including the keywords "botulinum toxin" and "botulinum neurotoxin" and commercial brand names of botulinum toxin products between 1975 and 2017. We performed a detailed bibliometric and scientometric assessment in this field. RESULTS: A total of 24,948 articles were retrieved from four databases provided by Web of Science, and most of which were original articles (76.19%). The United States ranked first and dominated literature with 8,729 documents (34.29%) followed by the United Kingdom, Germany, and Italy (14.61%, 11.18%, and 5.5%, respectively). The United Kingdom was detected to be the most productive country with the highest productivity (55.09) followed Switzerland, Denmark, and Germany (47.7, 34.01, and 33.98, respectively). The most studied area was neurology (56.1%) and University of California System was the most productive institution. We noted no correlation between publication number and citations by year. CONCLUSION: We found that all top 10 authors and institutions were from developed countries. Physician from developing and the least-developed countries should be supported to carry out novel studies on botulinum toxin.

Ischemia-modified albumin as a possible marker of oxidative stress in patients with telogen effluvium

Abstract Background Telogen effluvium is the most common form of non-scarring alopecia characterized by diffuse hair loss. Ischemia-modified albumin is a marker of oxidative stress and inflammation. Objective The aim of this study was to compare the levels of ischemia-modified albumin of telogen effluvium patients with healthy controls. Methods Ninety-one patients diagnosed with telogen effluvium and 35 healthy volunteers were included in the study. Serum ischemia-modified albumin level was determined by a fast-colorimetric method, and albumin cobalt binding test. The results were evaluated statistically. Results There was no statistically significant difference between the serum albumin values of patient and control groups (p = 0.739). Serum ischemia-modified albumin values were significantly higher in the patients with telogen effluvium than healthy controls (p < 0.001). Study limitations Body mass index values of the patient and control groups could not be calculated. Conclusions To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first clinical study to investigate the role of oxidative stress in the pathogenesis of telogen effluvium using ischemia-modified albumin as a biomarker. Based on the results of the present study, it can be considered that oxidative stress plays an important role in the pathogenesis of telogen effluvium. There is a need for further studies to support the results of this study, to demonstrate the possible effects of oxidative stress, and to investigate the other oxidative stress markers in the pathogenesis of telogen effluvium.

Ischemia-modified albumin as a possible marker of oxidative stress in patients with telogen effluvium.

BACKGROUND: Telogen effluvium is the most common form of non-scarring alopecia characterized by diffuse hair loss. Ischemia-modified albumin is a marker of oxidative stress and inflammation. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to compare the levels of ischemia-modified albumin of telogen effluvium patients with healthy controls. METHODS: Ninety-one patients diagnosed with telogen effluvium and 35 healthy volunteers were included in the study. Serum ischemia-modified albumin level was determined by a fast-colorimetric method, and albumin cobalt binding test. The results were evaluated statistically. RESULTS: There was no statistically significant difference between the serum albumin values of patient and control groups (p=0.739). Serum ischemia-modified albumin values were significantly higher in the patients with telogen effluvium than healthy controls (p<0.001). STUDY LIMITATIONS: Body mass index values of the patient and control groups could not be calculated. CONCLUSIONS: To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first clinical study to investigate the role of oxidative stress in the pathogenesis of telogen effluvium using ischemia-modified albumin as a biomarker. Based on the results of the present study, it can be considered that oxidative stress plays an important role in the pathogenesis of telogen effluvium. There is a need for further studies to support the results of this study, to demonstrate the possible effects of oxidative stress, and to investigate the other oxidative stress markers in the pathogenesis of telogen effluvium.

Evolution of Telepathology: A Comprehensive Analysis of Global Telepathology Literature Between 1986 and 2017.

OBJECTIVE: Telepathology is an application of telemedicine providing remote evaluation and consultation of digital pathology images and can be used for educational or experimental purposes. Bibliometrics is a statistical discipline investigating publication patterns and trends in a certain academic field. Although bibliometric and scientometric studies are becoming increasingly popular, the relevant literature contains only one limited article related to telepathology. The aim of our study was to perform a holistic bibliometric analysis of the telepathology literature. MATERIAL AND METHOD: Since the first article on telepathology was published in 1986, we included all indexed articles retrieved from Web of Science databases between 1986 and 2017. RESULTS: We found that the USA covering 43.01% of all literature was the leading country in the telepathology field and was followed by Germany, Italy and the UK (n=120, 90 and 83, respectively). The countries with the most contributions were located in the continents of Europe and North America. The most productive source titles were Human Pathology, Journal of Telemedicine and Telecare, and Modern Pathology. Harvard University ranked first with 59 articles. The most commonly used keywords of the telepathology literature were "telepathology", "telemedicine", "digital pathology", "virtual microscopy" and "telecytology". We noted that all of the ten countries with the most contributions were in the developed category of UN classification and all twenty of the most productive institutions were from developed countries. CONCLUSION: We suggest that researchers from developing and least developed countries should be encouraged to carry out novel studies since telemedicine is a required and promising technology for rural developing or least developed areas in which access to health care is difficult.

The etiology of notalgia paresthetica: a descriptive study of 117 patients.

BACKGROUND: Notalgia paresthetica (NP) is a neuropathic itching condition unilaterally localized in the midscapular area. It is a common but an underdiagnosed disease, and only a few studies investigating NP etiology with a limited number of patients have been reported in the literature. OBJECTIVE: We aimed to evaluate the demographic, clinical, histopathological, neurological, and radiological findings of NP patients and investigate correlations between them and symptoms of NP to elucidate the etiology of NP. METHODS: One hundred and seventeen consecutive patients diagnosed with NP were included and assessed in a multidisciplinary and prospective manner. We recorded demographic and clinical data and obtained a skin biopsy from the pruritic or hyperpigmented region. Pruritus severity was assessed by visual analogue scale (VAS). All patients were evaluated neurologically with magnetic resonance imaging. RESULTS: The mean age of the patients was 47.08 ± 12.28 years. The disease was more common in females (87.2%). Statistical analysis revealed that VAS scores were independent of the age, gender, and skin type of the patient. We found no significant difference in VAS scores between NP patients with or without comorbidities. Vertebral pathologies detected by MRI and amyloid deposition revealed in histopathology were not among the main factors affecting VAS scores. STUDY LIMITATION: Since consecutive patients enrolled into the study, we could not include equal number of male and female patients. CONCLUSION: We found no correlation between symptom severity and findings from neurological and histopathological evaluations. Further microneurological studies should be carried out to elucidate the etiology of NP.

Impotence literature: Scientometric analysis of erectile dysfunction articles between 1975 and 2018.

Erectile dysfunction (ED) is portrayed as lasting deficiency to achieve or sustain penile erection in successful vaginal penetration and is a major problem affecting the quality of life in men. The number of ED sufferers worldwide is anticipated to reach 322 million, by 2025. In recent years, many publications and studies have been made in the field of ED. Our aim was to perform a detailed bibliometric analysis of erectile dysfunction literature. In this study, we downloaded the data of the publications from the Web of Science Core Collection. All items indexed in these databases between 1975 and 2018 were included. Documents produced in 2019 were excluded. We searched in WoS databases for the keywords of 'erectile dysfunction' and 'impotence'. Our basic search into WoS databases retrieved a total of 28,266 documents indexed between 1975 and 2018. English dominated impotence literature (92.541%) followed by German, French and Korean (2.136%, 1.920% and 1.180% respectively). The United States has made tremendous improvement in ED studies and is still the effective country. The most prolific author was Montorsi F with 330 articles from Italy, and three-fifth of the authors were from the USA.

Anammox-based processes: How far have we come and what work remains? A review by bibliometric analysis.

Nitrogen contamination remains a severe environmental problem and a major threat to sustainable development worldwide. A systematic analysis of the literature indicates that the partial nitritation-anammox (PN/AMX) process is still actively studied as a viable option for energy-efficient and feasible technology for the sustainable treatment of N- rich wastewaters, since its initial discovery in 1990. Notably, the mainstream PN/AMX process application remains the most challenging bottleneck in AMX technology and fascinates the world's attention in AMX studies. This paper discusses the recent trends and developments of PN/AMX research and analyzes the results of recent years of research on the PN/AMX from lab-to full-scale applications. The findings would deeply improve our understanding of the major challenges under mainstream conditions and next-stage research on the PN/AMX process. A great deal of efforts has been made in the process engineering, PN/AMX bacteria populations, predictive modeling, and the full-scale implementations during the past 22 years. A series of new and excellent experimental findings at lab, pilot and full-scale levels including good nitrogen removal performance even under low temperature (15-10 °C) around the world were achieved. To date, pilot- and full-scale PN/AMX have been successfully used to treat different types of industrial sewage, including black wastewater, sludge digester liquids, landfill leachate, monosodium glutamate wastewater, etc. Supplementing the qualitative analysis, this review also provides a quantitative bibliometrics study and evaluates global perspectives on PN/AMX research published during the past 22 years. Finally, general trends in the development of PN/AMX research are summarized with the aim of conveying potential future trajectories. The current review offers a valuable orientation and global overview for scientists, engineers, readers and decision makers presently focusing on PN/AMX processes.

Scientometric analysis of medicinal leech therapy.

BACKGROUND: Hirudotherapy, also known as medicinal leech therapy, has been used to treat a wide range of disorders for thousands of years since Ancient Egypt. Leech therapy is also mentioned as a minimal invasive technique called Jalaukavacharana in the Sushruta Samhita, an ancient Sanskrit text of Ayurvedic medicine. Although hirudotherapy has become a popular component of complementary medicine in the last decade, scientometric studies investigating the articles published in this field, do not exist. OBJECTIVE: In this study, we aimed to perform a detailed scientometric analysis of hirudotherapy literature. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We collected data by using four databases provided by Web of Science using the keywords "hirudotherapy", "leech therapy", "medicinal leech" and "medicinal leech therapy". RESULTS: A total of 834 articles were found of which 89.8% were original articles. USA was the leading country with 280 publications, followed by UK, Germany and France (128, 101 and 41 items, respectively). The most productive countries regarding hirudotherapy were the UK (1.93), Slovenia (1.44), and Israel (1.32). The peak publication year for hirudotherapy literature was 2011 with 41 papers. CONCLUSION: To the best of our knowledge, our study was the first bibliometric and scientometric analysis in this field and we believe that multicenter studies and further searches from developing and least-developed countries are needed in hirudotherapy literature.

Evolution of military medicine literature: a scientometric study of global publications on military medicine between 1978 and 2017.

OBJECTIVES: Scientometrics is a popular statistical discipline providing data relevant to publication patterns and trends in a certain academic field. There are no scientometric analyses of publications produced in military medicine literature. The present study aims to perform a holistic analysis of military medicine literature. METHODS: All data of this study were collected from the Web of Science Core Collection. All indexed documents between 1978 and 2017 were included. Countries, authors, institutions, citations and keywords relevant to the military medicine literature were comprehensively analysed. An infomap revealing global productivity and infographics of scientometric networks were generated. RESULTS: A total of 48 240 published items were found, 82.29% of which were original articles. USA, covering 56.66% of all literature dominated the military medicine field followed by the UK, China, Canada and Israel. We found that 18 of 20 most productive institutions in the world were from USA and the US Department of Defense was the most contributing institution in the literature with 9664 documents. The most used keywords over a 40-year period were 'military', 'veterans', 'posttraumatic stress disorder' and 'military personnel'. A scientometric network of keywords showed a complicated 'starburst pattern'. CONCLUSION: All most contributing countries except Turkey, China and Israel were developed nations. Only one institution (Tel Aviv University) from developing countries was noted in the list of 20 most productive institutions. The researchers from developing and the least developed countries should be encouraged and supported to carry out novel studies on military medicine.