Global insights and knowledge mapping of immunity and inflammation in acute pancreatitis: A bibliometric and visual analysis.

BACKGROUND

Despite extensive evidence implicating inflammation in the development and progression of acute pancreatitis, a comprehensive bibliometric analysis focused on this field remains scarce. We aimed to unravel the current research status and identify future directions in the study of inflammation and immunity in acute pancreatitis through a bibliometric analysis.

METHODS

Relevant literature was retrieved from the Science Citation Index Expanded Database of the Web of Science Core Collection. Data on countries, institutions, authors, journals, documents, references and keywords were analyzed using CiteSpace, VOSviewer, and the R package "Bibliometrix."

RESULTS

A total of 889 documents, including 845 articles and 44 reviews, published between 1979 and 2024 by 4814 authors from 948 institutions across 50 countries, were included. China (n = 397), Shanghai Jiao Tong University (n = 45), Henrik Thorlacius (n = 15) and Pancreas (n = 58) were the most prolific country, institution, author and academic journal, respectively. The top 10 most highly cited documents focused on intercellular adhesion molecule 1, neutrophils, inflammasome, and the association between early systemic inflammatory response or inflammatory mediator levels and patient outcomes. Keyword analysis indicated that "cytokine," "systemic inflammatory response syndrome," "apoptosis" were most frequent, while emerging keywords included neutrophil extracellular traps, exosome, pyroptosis, macrophage polarization, and NLRP3 inflammasome.

CONCLUSIONS

This bibliometric analysis suggests that the field of inflammation and immunity in acute pancreatitis is expanding rapidly, encompassing effector cells, mediators, signaling pathways, cell death mechanism, and corresponding clinical outcomes. Future directions may prioritize the pathological, diagnostic and/or therapeutic role of exosomes and pyroptosis to facilitate patient management.