Global research production in neonatal abstinence syndrome: A bibliometric analysis.

BACKGROUND: Recently, neonatal abstinence syndrome (NAS) emerged as a significant global concern with a dramatic increase in healthcare expenditures. The incidence of the NAS has increased notably in the past decade and emergence as a global public health problem. AIM: To evaluate the development and trend of global NAS research from 1958 to 2019 by bibliometric analysis. METHODS: Analyzed aspects included publication output per year, language, document types, journals, countries/territories, h-index, authors, and top research priorities. The VOSviewer was used to determine the top research priorities, and trends, and to present bibliometric networks concerning various dimensions, such as co-authorship, authors, and countries. RESULTS: A total of 1738 articles were retrieved in the Scopus database from 1958 to 2019. It was found that the great majority of the total NAS documents (n = 1295) were original articles followed by reviews (n = 268) and letters (n = 48). The most productive countries in the NAS field were the United States (n = 833), Canada (n = 112), the United Kingdom (n = 111), and Germany (n = 77). Treatment and hospital outcomes in NAS, evidence-based nurse-driven interventions for the care of newborns with NAS, and a systematic reviews and network meta-analysis for therapeutic approaches of NAS were found in recent years (after 2010), compared with terms such as pathophysiology, mechanisms of NAS, and signs and symptoms in the early years. CONCLUSION: Treatment and pediatric outcomes and the effectiveness of pharmacological treatment may be frontiers in the NAS field, and continued efforts from researchers are needed in those topics.

Global research production pertaining to gastrointestinal involvement in COVID-19: A bibliometric and visualised study.

BACKGROUND: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a global pandemic that can cause diarrhoea, nausea/vomiting, and abdominal pain, among other gastrointestinal (GI) symptoms. AIM: To perform a bibliometric analysis of the global research production pertaining to GI involvement in COVID-19. METHODS: The Scopus database was used to search the global literature on GI involvement in COVID-19 during 2020. A bibliometric review of these publications was also performed using VOSviewer. RESULTS: Scopus had published 95615 documents on COVID-19 in all areas of research at the time of data collection. In total, 1267 publications on the topic of GI and COVID-19 were identified. Research articles (n = 606; 47.83%), letters (293; 23.13%), and reviews (186; 14.68%) were the most popular types of documents. The most productive countries and institutions in this field were the United States and Huazhong University of Science and Technology. The most cited paper was Xiao et al, which was published in Gastroenterology as a brief communication, with 798 citations. This paper provides evidence for GI infection of COVID-19 and its possible faecal-oral transmission route. In the term cluster analysis, there were two frontiers in this field: GI manifestations among COVID-19 patients and the implications of COVID-19 for the gastroenterologist. CONCLUSION: GI manifestations among COVID-19 patients and implications of COVID-19 for gastroenterologists were of interest, especially in the early stages of the pandemic.

Abnormal High-sensitivity C-reactive Protein is Associated with an Increased Risk of Cardiovascular Disease and Renal Dysfunction among Patients Diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus in Palestine.

OBJECTIVE: In this study, we aimed to evaluate the prevalence of high sensitivity C-reactive protein (hsCRP) as an inflammatory mediator and its association with renal function and other biochemical markers in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus. METHODS: We carried out a cross-sectional study at private healthcare center. We included 453 patients (48.6% males and 51.4% females) with type 2 diabetes mellitus. We obtained socio- demographic, clinical, and laboratory data from patient medical records. We carried out statistical analysis to ascertain associations between parameters. RESULTS: The overall risk of cardiovascular disease (hsCRP > 1 mg/L) among the study participants was 27.2%. Age, gender, body mass index, fasting blood glucose and serum creatinine were significantly associated with risk of cardiovascular disease (hsCRP > 1 mg/L) whereas estimated glomerular filtration rate, vitamin B12, calcium, sodium and metformin users were negatively associated with the hsCRP. CONCLUSIONS: We found a significant positive association of elevated level of C-reactive protein with type 2 diabetes mellitus. Moreover, additional to increased cardiovascular disease risk, hsCRP also seems to be a major inflammatory risk marker indicating renal function loss.

Global trends in research related to sleeve gastrectomy: A bibliometric and visualized study.

BACKGROUND: One of the most popular bariatric procedures is sleeve gastrectomy, and it has become significantly more common in recent years. AIM: To evaluate the research activity in sleeve gastrectomy over the last two decades, and to visualize the hot spots and emerging trends in this type of bariatric surgery using bibliometric methods. METHODS: The Scopus database was used to search for publications related to sleeve gastrectomy. The retrieved publications were reviewed in terms of year of publication, type of study, country of origin, institutions, journals, and citation patterns by using descriptive analysis. Collaboration network and term co-occurrence analysis were visualized by using VOSviewer software. RESULTS: The search strategy yielded a total of 6508 publications on sleeve gastrectomy from 2001 to 2020. As regards the document type, the majority were articles (n = 5230; 80.36%), followed by reviews (n = 544; 8.36%). The top three countries are the United States, with 1983 publications (30.47%), followed by France (600; 9.22%) and Italy (417; 6.71%). The most cited publication was published in 2012 by Schauer et al in the New England Journal of Medicine (n = 1435 citations). This publication found that weight loss was greater in the sleeve gastrectomy group than in the medical therapy group. Furthermore, this study demonstrated that 12 mo of medical therapy plus bariatric surgery greatly improved glycemic regulation in obese patients with uncontrolled type 2 diabetes compared with medical therapy alone. The focus of the current literature on sleeve gastrectomy was directed toward several themes such as morbidity and potential complications, the complexity of the procedure and different surgical approaches, and diabetes and body mass index in correlation to sleeve gastrectomy. CONCLUSION: The number of sleeve gastrectomy publications has gradually grown over the last 20 years. This bibliometric analysis could help researchers better understand the knowledge base and research frontiers surrounding sleeve gastrectomy. In addition, future studies may focus on emerging research hotspots.

Prevalence of dyslipidemia and factors affecting lipid profile in patients with type 2 diabetes.

AIM: Dyslipidemia is an established marker for endothelial dysfunction and cardiovascular risk in diabetes. So we aimed to explore the prevalence of dyslipidemia in patients with type2 diabetes mellitus (DM) and to determine the association between dyslipidemia and other health care and biochemical indicators. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A cross-sectional study was carried out at private health care center. A total of 291 diabetic patients aged 18 years and above attended the clinic from August 2017 through April 2018 were included. Socio-demographic, clinical, and laboratory data were obtained from the medical records of patients. Statistical analysis was carried out using (SPSS, version 23). RESULTS: out of the 291 diabetes patients recruited 22.3% had hypercholesterolemia (TC ≥ 200) and 61.9% had hypertriglyceridemia. Abnormal LDL-C levels (≥130) were found in 8.9% of patients and HDL-C was less than 40 mg/dl in 54.3%. There was a statistically significant difference (P = 0.048) in abnormal HDL levels (˂ 40 mg/dl) among females (59.3%) and males (47.6). Patients with HbA1c values ≥ 7.0%had significantly higher values of total cholesterol (TC) and abnormal LDL-C compared with the patients who had HbA1c ˂ 7.0%. CONCLUSION: dyslipidemia is highly prevalent among diabetic population particularly in those with poorly controlled diabetes. This calls for early and universal screening of lipid profile. There is also an urgent demand for measures that target tight glycemic, optimal lipid profile control and life style modifications is also required to all diabetic patients to achieve target value of HbA1C ≤ 7.

Prevalence of Diabetic Nephropathy and associated risk factors among type 2 diabetes mellitus patients in Ramallah, Palestine.

AIMS: Albuminuria is an established marker for endothelial dysfunction and cardiovascular risk in diabetes and prediabetes. So we aimed to explore the prevalence of albuminuria (microalbuminuria and macroalbuminuria) in patients with type2 diabetes mellitus (DM) in the Palestinian community and to determine the association between albuminuria and other health care and biochemical indicators. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A cross-sectional study was carried out at private health care center. A total of 550 diabetic patients aged 35 years and above with type 2 diabetes mellitus who attended the clinic from May 2017 through February 2018 were included. Socio-demographic, clinical, and laboratory data were obtained from the medical records of patients. Statistical analysis was carried out using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS, version 23). RESULTS: Out of the 550 patients recruited, the mean age and duration of diabetes were 57.8 years and 9.5 years, respectively. Approximately 62% were being managed by oral hypoglycemic agents alone, 4.3% by insulin alone, 31.7% were on a combination of oral hypoglycemic agents and insulin and slightly less than 2% were on dietary measures alone. The mean value for HbA1c was 7.71%. The overall prevalence of albuminuria among participants was found to be 34.6%; microalbuminuria (29.3%) and macroalbuminuria (5.3%). CONCLUSION: Albuminuria is highly prevalent among Palestinian population with type 2 diabetes. This calls for early and universal screening of urinary albumin. There is also an urgent need for measures that target tight glycemic and optimal blood pressure control and the use of renin-angiotensin system blockade.