ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Public Health, 15 June 2022

Sec. Public Health Education and Promotion

Volume 10 - 2022 | https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2022.884780

Bibliometrics and Visual Analysis of Adult-onset Still Disease (1976–2020)

  • 1. Department of Oncology, Guang'anmen Hospital, China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences, Beijing, China

  • 2. Graduate School, Beijing University of Chinese Medicine, Beijing, China

  • 3. Department of Nephrology, Dongzhimen Hospital, Beijing University of Chinese Medicine, Beijing, China

  • 4. Graduate School, China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences, Beijing, China

Article metrics

View details

2

Citations

2,8k

Views

1,5k

Downloads

Abstract

Background:

Adult-onset Still Disease (AoSD) is a rare disorder without standardized diagnostic criteria. People are paying more and more attention to its research. At present, no published studies have assessed the AoSD field using bibliometric tools. This study aimed to analyze research hotspots and frontiers through bibliometrics to provide a scientific and accurate reference for new and existing researchers.

Methods:

Data were obtained from the Web of Science core database and analyzed by CiteSpace, VOSviewer, and Microsoft Excel.

Results:

Involving 86 countries and regions, a total of 11,121 authors published 2,199 articles in 676 journals. These studies were published from 1976 to 2020. The United States published the most related articles (397). The United States, France, Italy, and Germany were the top four countries with a high H-index. Authors and institutions with high number of published articles and high citations are mainly located in France and Italy. High-frequency keywords include classification, criteria, diagnosis, and therapy method. Keyword clustering covers the connection between AoSD and rheumatoid arthritis, disease diagnosis, classification, and risk factors.

Conclusions:

The research on AoSD focuses on the diagnosis and differential diagnosis of the disease. Targeted therapy will become a research hotspot in the future, and relevant clinical research needs to appropriately expand the sample size and improve the credibility of the conclusions. The data reported in this study can serve as a useful resource for researchers studying AoSD.

Introduction

Adult-onset Still Disease (AoSD) is a systemic autoinflammatory disease. In 1971, Bywaters analyzed the clinical and laboratory characteristics of 14 adult patients. He found that these characteristics were very similar to systemic-onset juvenile idiopathic arthritis (SoJIA), a condition also known as Still disease. From these observations, he named the disease AoSD (1).

The incidence of AoSD is low. Furthermore, at present, there is no unified understanding of the incidence and prevalence of the disease in different populations in the world. A French study showed that the incidence of AoSD is about 0.16 per 1,00,000 people (2). In Japan, the incidence of AoSD in men and women is 0.22–0.34 per 1,00,000 patients, respectively (3). Additionally, AoSD can occur in any age group and race; however, it is more prevalent in young (15–25 years) and middle-aged (36–46 years) people.

The main characteristics of AoSD include recurrent fever, joint pain or arthritis, skin lesions, hepatosplenomegaly, enlarged lymph nodes, abnormal liver function, increased peripheral blood leukocytes, a high neutrophil ratio, increased C-reactive protein, an enhanced erythrocyte sedimentation rate, and a high concentration of serum ferritin.

Multiple factors such as heredity, infection, and immune dysfunction may be related to the pathogenesis of AoSD; however, the exact mechanism or causes remain unknown. The human leukocyte antigen (HLA) genotype is closely related to the pathogenesis of several diseases. Furthermore, HLA-Bw35, HLA-B17, HLA-B18, HLA-B35, HLA-DR4, HLA-DRw6, etc., are thought to be closely related to the onset of several diseases (48). Additionally, interleukin-6 (IL-6), interleukin-8 (IL-8), serum amyloid A, and macrophage migration inhibitory factors are hypothesized to affect disease susceptibility (912). Given that similar symptoms of infection such as a sore throat appear before the onset of AoSD, we hypothesize that infectious factors are involved in the onset of the disease. In agreement with this hypothesis, the incidence of AoSD is related to a variety of viruses and pathogenic bacteria (13, 14).

Both the innate and adaptive arms of the host immune response are involved in the pathogenesis of AoSD, of which macrophages, neutrophils, and serum cytokines play a key role. Inflammasome activation, like NLRP3 inflammasome (NOD-, LRR-and pyrin domain-containing 3), by pathogen-associated molecular patterns and damage-associated molecular patterns (15, 16) increase interleukin-1β (IL-1β) and interleukin-18 (IL-18) levels by cysteine-containing aspartate proteolytic enzyme-1 (caspase-1) (1719). This leads to the dysregulation of IL-6, IL-8, interleukin-17, and Tumor Necrosis Factor alpha (TNF-α) levels (2022) and results in the induction of cytokine storm and, thus, contribute to AoSD pathogenesis.

Bibliometrics is a comprehensive knowledge system that integrates mathematics, statistics, and linguistics. It is widely used to explore development trends and research frontiers in various fields (23). However, there is no bibliometric study for AoSD. Therefore, we conducted a bibliometric study to evaluate all available evidence for AoSD. Here, we aim to provide an up-to-date overview of the status of AoSD with the help of a variety of bibliometric tools.

Materials and Methods

Eligibility Criteria

This study was included literatures on AoSD as the research topic. Article types were limited to “article” and “review.” Conference abstracts, letters, expert views, editorial materials, corrections, retractions, and proceedings paper were excluded.

Search Strategy and Screening

All publications included in this study were collected from the Science Citation Index Expanded (SCI-E) through the Web of Science Core Collection (WoSCC) database on October 24, 2021. The search formula was set to TS = (Adult-onset Still Disease), and the period of published studies assessed was from 1976 to 2020, the language restriction was English. Two researchers (BH Bao and BW Xu) cross-checked the included article, and when there were disparities, the third researcher (XY Meng) made a final decision. The process of study screening is shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1

Figure 1

Process of study selection.

Data Analysis Methods

VOSviewer version 1.6.17, Citespace 5.8.R3 and Microsoft Excel 2020 are used for data analysis and visualization of AoSD article studies. VOSviewer and Citespace are bibliometric analysis softwares. These softwares were used for co-word analysis, co-citation analysis, and article coupling analysis. They can visualize the research results and has unique advantages in clustering technology and map display (24). Microsoft Excel was used to draw relevant tables and illustrate the annual trend of publications and references.

Results

Temporal Trends of Publications and Citations

By using search strategy, a total of 2,864 published studies and reviews were retrieved. After the removal of duplicate documents, 2,199 articles remained. Changes in the number of publications and citations can reflect the development status of a field and predict future research trends. The total citations and average citations were 63,073 and 28.68, respectively. The H-index was 106. Searching within the WoSCC database, the first available article on AoSD was published in American Family Physician in 1976. In the past 10 years, the number of publications and citations of AoSD article has steadily increased year over year. In 2020, the number of publications and citations of related articles reached peaked at 231 and 11,731. As shown in Figure 2A.

Figure 2

Figure 2

Trends in publications and citations of AoSD research. (A) The annual trends of global publications and citations. (B) H-index, average citations (citations per article), and total citations of the top 10 countries. (C) The temporal trends of publications from the top 10 countries.

Country/Region and Institution Characteristics

From 1976 to 2020, scholars from 86 countries and regions have published AoSD research. Among them, scientists from the United States published the most (397, 18.054%). The Top 10 countries with more than 200 publications included Italy (304, 13.824%), France (212, 9.641%), Japan (210, 9.55%), and Germany (201, 9.141%) (Table 1). From the number of publications in the past 10 years, it can be observed that the number of AoSD publications from the Top 10 countries has been steadily increasing (Figure 2C). Furthermore, from the average number of citations within the same period, Canada (53.61), Netherlands (46.98), and England (45.73) are ranked in the Top three and the United States (67), France (47), Italy, Germany (47) were the Top four countries with the highest H-index (Figure 2B and Table 1). Together, these data indicate that the United States, Canada, Brazil, Italy, and other countries have made a substantial contribution to AoSD research.

Table 1

RankCountryPublications% of 2,199Total citationsAverage citationsH-index
1United States39718.05417,37243.7667
2Italy30413.8247,98626.2747
3France2129.6419,51944.953
4Japan2109.554,99523.7939
5Germany2019.1416,79433.847
6China1476.6852,01613.7125
7England1376.236,26545.7343
8Netherlands954.324,46346.9837
9South Korea863.9111,42016.5123
10Canada763.4564,07453.6131

Top 10 countries by publications, citations, and centrality.

Regarding specific research institutions, we found that 2,588 research institutions have conducted AoSD research. The main institutions by number of publications include Assistance Publique Hopitaux Paris (105 publications), Institut National De La Sante Et De La Recherche Medicale (68 publications) and Sorbonne Universite (53 publications). These data indicate that these three institutions are specialized in the field of AoSD research. Further, it is evident that France occupies a dominant position in the field (Table 2).

Table 2

RankInstitutionPublicationsOriginal country
1Assistance Publique Hopitaux Paris105France
2Institut National De La Sante Et De La Recherche Medicale68France
3Sorbonne Universite53France
4Universite de Paris53France
5University of London48England
6Harvard University43United States
7Hopital Universitaire Pitie Salpetriere40France
8Sapienza University Rome38Italy
9University of Padua35Italy
10Charite Medical University of Berlin33Germany

Top 10 institutions distributed by publications and centrality.

Academic Collaboration

Academic exchanges and cooperation between different countries/regions, institutions, and authors play an important role in expanding the depth and horizons of research. When parameters of academic cooperation and exchange in AoSD research were assessed, it is evident that collaboration, training, and information exchange occur at multiple levels (Figure 3).

Figure 3

Figure 3

Academic collaboration between different countries/regions, institutions, and authors in AoSD research area. (A) Academic collaboration between different countries/regions. (B) Collaboration between different institutions. (C) Collaboration between different authors.

VOSviewer software was used to visualize the collaboration between countries, institutions, and authors (Figure 3A). Each node represents a different country/region. The connection between the nodes represents the cooperative relationship, and the node size represents the number of published studies that have arisen from their collaboration. Of the total published articles, 48 countries/regions published at least five research articles. The United States, Italy, Germany, and France have collaborated the most in AoSD research, which is highly consistent with the observation made for the Top 10 countries in Table 1.

The node connection length reflects the closeness of cooperation between two different institutions. Our analysis revealed that a total of 216 research institutions have published at least five research documents. Circles/nodes in different colors represent a cooperative group. Twelve cooperative groups with the closest cooperation were identified. The University of Padua, the University of L'Aquila, and Harvard University have carried out the most academic cooperation with other research institutions. As shown in Figure 3B.

Co-author analysis revealed a total of 11,121 co-authors in the AoSD field. Giacomelli R (27 articles) has published the most articles, followed by Ruscitti P (26 articles) and Kim Ha (25 articles) (Table 3). Our data indicate that 85 authors have published more than five articles. After clustering these scientists, 16 main cooperative groups were formed (Figure 3C). Among the two largest cooperative groups, Ciccia Francesco and Liu Honglei occupy key positions in the cooperative network, indicating that their research in this field has been significantly cooperative.

Table 3

RankAuthorPublicationsCountryInstitutionRankCited authorTotal citationsAverage citationsH-indexCountryInstitution
1Giacomelli R27ItalyUniversity of Aquila1Fautrel B1,66387.5316FranceAssistance Publique Hopitaux Paris (APHP)
2Ruscitti P26ItalyUniversity of Aquila2Piette JC901103.710FranceAssistance Publique Hopitaux Paris (APHP)
3Kim Ha25South KoreaAjou University3Giacomelli R75327.8916ItalyUniversity of Aquila
4Suh CH24South KoreaAjou University4Gabay C7401485SwitzerlandUniversity of Geneva
5Chen DY21ChinaChina Medical University5Esdaile JM623124.85CanadaMcGill University
6Cipriani P20ItalyUniversity of Aquila6Bourgeois P616115.56FranceAssistance Publique Hopitaux Paris (APHP)
7Fautrel B19FranceAssistance Publique Hopitaux Paris (APHP)7Shoenfeld Y61261.29IsraelTel Aviv University Sackler Faculty of Medicine
8Jung JY19South KoreaAjou University8Gerfaud-Valentin M60767.448FranceUniversity of Claude Bernard Lyon 1
9Yang CD17ChinaShanghai Jiao Tong University9Seve P57267.448FranceUniversity of Claude Bernard Lyon 1
10Giacomelli R27ItalyUniversity of L'Aquila10Fautrel B1,66387.5316FranceAssistance Publique Hopitaux Paris (APHP)

Top 10 authors distributed by publications and citations.

Distribution of Co-cited Authors

The Top three most-cited authors were Fautrel B (1,663 citations), followed by Piette JC (901 citations), and Giacomelli R (753 citations). The majority of institutions where the Top 10 authors, by publications and citations, were affiliated were located in France and Italy (Table 3). Yamaguchi M has the highest number of co-citations, followed by Fautrel B, and Pouchot J (Figure 4). These authors have been co-cited more than 380 times, indicating that their AoSD research has received widespread attention.

Figure 4

Figure 4

VOSviewer visualization map of co-cited authors devoted to AoSD research.

Distribution of Journals

The studies and reviews assessed here were published in 676 journals, of which 23 journals published more than 20 articles related to AoSD. The impact factor (IF) and journal quartile were obtained from Journal Citation Reports 2020. The Top four most productive journals are Clinical Rheumatology (IF 2.98), the Journal of Rheumatology (IF 4.666), Rheumatology International (IF 2.631), and Medicine (IF 1.889). The Top four journals cited are the Journal of Rheumatology (IF 4.666), Medicine (IF1.889), the Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases (IF 19.103), and Clinical Rheumatology (IF 2.98); all of which have been cited more than 1,500 times (Table 4). The Top three most cited journals are the Journal of Rheumatology (IF 4.666), the Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases (IF 19.103), and Arthritis & Rheumatology (IF 10.995) (Figures 5A,B). The majority of the published articles, including the Top 10 most cited journals, are distributed in Q1 or Q2 (Table 4). These data indicate that these journals have a relatively important influence on AoSD research.

Table 4

RankJournalPublications% of 2,219IF (JCR2020)JIF quartileJournalTotal citationsAverage citationsH-indexIF (JCR2020)JIF quartile
1Clinical Rheumatology793.5932.98Q3Journal of Rheumatology3,46765.45294.666Q2
2Journal of Rheumatology532.414.666Q2Medicine1,94647.54181.889Q2
3Rheumatology International462.0922.631Q3Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases1,83663.312019.103Q1
4Medicine411.8641.889Q2Arthritis & Rheumatology1,73125.841710.995Q1
5Clinical and Experimental Rheumatology391.7744.473Q2Clinical Rheumatology1,56919.87222.98Q3
6Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases291.31919.103Q1Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism1,03543.08305.958Q1
7Modern Rheumatology291.3193.023Q3Rheumatology98646.95167.580Q1
8Revue De Medecine Interne241.0910.728Q4Seminars in Arthritis and Rheumatism94142.77145.532Q2
9Internal Medicine231.0462.048Q2Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology895127.86710.793Q1
10Seminars in Arthritis and Rheumatism2215.532Q2Autoimmunity Reviews87873.25119.754Q1

Top 10 journals distributed by publications and citations.

Figure 5

Figure 5

VOSviewer visualization map of most commonly cited journals related to AoSD research. (A) Co-citation network of journals. (B) The density map of the most commonly cited journals.

Analysis of Highly Cited Articles and Co-cited References

The Top thee co-cited references as follows: “Preliminary criteria for classification of adult stills disease” by Yamaguchi et al. (25) (653 citations). This article attempted to design classification criteria for AoSD. In that paper, AoSD criteria were proposed to be fever, arthralgia, typical rash, and leukocytosis as major, and sore throat, lymphadenopathy and/or splenomegaly, liver dysfunction, and the absence of rheumatoid factor and antinuclear antibody as minor criteria. A positive diagnosis was defined as a patient presenting with five or more criteria including two or more primary criteria (25). The second was “Still's disease in the adult.” by Bywaters (1) (354 citations). In this study, Bywaters first identified an inflammatory disease in young people and observed that the disease was similar to the childhood-onset Still's disease (that is SoJIA). Whilst the exact pathogenesis of the disease remains unclear, there is published homology between AoSD and SoJIA. Third was “Adult stills disease-manifestations, disease course, and outcome in 62 patients” by Pouchot et al. (8) (323 citations). In that study, Pouchot made a preliminary assessment of the clinical and laboratory manifestations, course of disease, outcome, and HLA association of 62 adult patients with Styr's disease from five universities in Canada. He concluded that that the close monitoring of liver function test in patients with AoSD, was important to improve patient outcomes, especially in the early course of the disease and regardless of whether patients use aspirin or other non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (8).

Co-cited references clustering can reflect the frontier direction of research field or unresolved scientific topics to a certain extent, which contains the emerging trend of research. The main clusters of co-cited references on AoSD focus on the treatment (#2, #5), clinical manifestations and accompanying symptoms (#1, #3, #8, #9, #16), differentiation from other rheumatic immune diseases (#4, #6), and autoimmune reactions (#7). As shown in Table 5 and Figure 6.

Table 5

Cluster IDCluster labelSizeS-valueMean (year)
#1Myocarditis1030.8852016
#2Infliximab970.8682008
#3Haemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis950.9552001
#4Stills disease800.9552016
#5Tocilizumab600.991988
#6Adult stills disease590.9332010
#7NLRP3590.9641994
#8Paraneoplastic syndrome590.9452006
#9Pulmonary arterial hypertension370.942013
#16Atypical cutaneous manifestations310.942014
#19Juvenile idiopathic1512014

Major clusters of co-cited references.

Figure 6

Figure 6

Citespace visualization map of major clusters of co-cited references.

The Top three articles with the most citations included Yamaguchi et al. (26) (1,081 citations), Pouchot et al. (8) (482 citations) and Gabay et al. (27) (435 citations). The article entitled “IL-1 pathways in inflammation and human diseases” by Gabay et al. (27) has been cited 435 times. This review systematically described published research relating to the IL-1 pathway and inflammation development and treatment. The review found that the human IL-1 receptor antagonist, Anakinra, produced by gene recombination technology affected AoSD (27). As shown in Tables 6, 7.

Table 6

RankAuthorTitleSourceCitations
1Yamaguchi, MPreliminary criteria for classification of adult stills diseaseJournal of Rheumatology653
2Bywaters EGStill's disease in the adultAnnals of the Rheumatic Diseases354
3Pouchot, JAdult stills disease—manifestations, disease course, and outcome in 62 patientsMedicine323
4Cush, JJAdult-onset stills disease—clinical course and outcomeArthritis and Rheumatism197
5Efthimiou PDiagnosis and management of adult onset Still's diseaseAnnals of the Rheumatic Diseases175
6Fautrel, BProposal for a new set of classification criteria for adult-onset Still diseaseMedicine168
7Gerfaud-Valentin, MAdult-onset Still's diseaseAutoimmunity Reviews150
8Chen DYProinflammatory cytokine profiles in sera and pathological tissues of patients with active untreated adult onset Still's diseaseJournal of Rheumatology132
9Fautrel, BInterleukin-1 receptor antagonist (anakinra) treatment in patients with systemic-onset juvenile idiopathic arthritis or adult onset Still disease: preliminary experience in FranceAnnals of the Rheumatic Diseases128
10Reginato AJAdult onset Stills disease—Experience In 23 patients and literature-review with emphasis on organ failureSeminars in Arthritis and Rheumatism128

Top 10 co-cited reference.

Table 7

RankAuthorTitleSourceCitations
1Yamaguchi, MPreliminary criteria for classification of adult stills diseaseJournal of Rheumatology1,081
2Pouchot, JAdult stills disease—manifestations, disease course, and outcome in 62 patientsMedicine482
3Gabay, CIL-1 pathways in inflammation and human diseasesNature Reviews Rheumatology435
4Lequerre, TInterleukin-1 receptor antagonist (anakinra) treatment in patients with systemic-onset juvenile idiopathic arthritis or adult onset Still disease: preliminary experience in FranceAnnals of the Rheumatic Diseases286
5Cush, JJAdult-onset stills disease—clinical course and outcomeArthritis and Rheumatism263
6Gerfaud-ValentinAdult-onset Still's diseaseAutoimmunity Reviews255
7Fitzgerald, AARapid responses to anakinra in patients with refractory adult-onset Still's diseaseArthritis and Rheumatism251
8Fautrel, BProposal for a new set of classification criteria for adult-onset Still diseaseAnnals of the Rheumatic Diseases243
9Efthimiou PDiagnosis and management of adult onset Still's diseaseAnnals of the Rheumatic Diseases241
10Rosario, CThe Hyperferritinemic Syndrome: macrophage activation syndrome, Still's disease, septic shock and catastrophic antiphospholipid syndromeBMC Medicine235

Top 10 cited articles.

Analysis of Keywords

Keywords can also reflect frontiers and hotspots in a particular field. The Top 10 keywords with the highest occurrence frequencies in the article assessed in this study were “classification” (184), “criteria” (177), “rheumatoid-arthritis” (161), “juvenile idiopathic arthritis” (144), “manifestations” (139), “diagnosis” (137), “children” (129), “macrophage activation syndrome” (98), “adults” (94), and “efficiency” (83).

By clustering keywords with a frequency >5, a total of 446 eligible keywords were clustered into seven groups. Nodes with the same color represent the same cluster (Figure 7A). The clustering theme covers the links with rheumatoid ailment, disease diagnosis, classification, risk factors, and other aspects (Figure 7B). And keywords with a frequency of occurrence higher than 20 were screened for cluster presentation, as shown in Table 8. This is similar to the results of keywords burst. Keyword burst results show that the clinical prognosis judgment of AoSD, disease classification and the biological agents treatment (such as Anakinra) will be the research hotspots in the future (Figure 8).

Figure 7

Figure 7

Analysis of all keywords in studies related to AoSD research. (A) VOSviewer visualization map of co-occurring keywords. (B) The density map of keywords. (The closer the keyword node color is to red, the higher the frequency of its co-occurrence).

Table 8

ClusterKeywordNumberClusterKeywordNumber
1Children1293Arthritis57
1Disease1243Interleukin-1849
1Adults943Cytokine39
1Expression783Clinical-manifestations34
1Prevalence733pathological tissues32
1Risk703Ferritin31
1Risk-factors663Inflammation30
1Mortality483Marker30
1Alzheimer's-disease433Peripheral-blood28
1Age423Classification criteria27
1Gene413Interferon-gamma25
1Epidemiology383Classification184
1Mutations374Criteria177
1Older-adults364Manifestations139
1Proteins324Experience54
1Population304Features38
1Cardiovascular-disease284Adult-onset23
1Natural-history264Prognosis21
1Quality-of-life254Diagnosis137
1Mouse model245Management82
1Women235Infection48
1Physical-activity215Fever39
1Symptoms215Guidelines26
2Rheumatoid-arthritis1615Placebo-controlled trial23
2Juvenile idiopathic arthritis1445Therapy77
2Efficacy836Double-blind67
2Follow-up786Systemic-lupus-erythematosus57
2Onset stills-disease766Interleukin-624
2Pathogenesis756Trial22
2Anakinra626Inflammatory-bowel-disease21
2Clinical-features596Macrophage activation syndrome98
2Multicenter497Tumor-necrosis-factor61
2Tocilizumab357Serum ferritin55
2Interleukin-1 receptor antagonist337Juvenile rheumatoid-arthritis53
2Etanercept307Reactive hemophagocytic syndrome41
2Safety287Hemophagocytic syndrome40
2Methotrexate267Lymphohistiocytosis26
2Familial mediterranean fever247Prognostic-factors25
2Infliximab237Hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis22
2Spectrum217Intravenous immunoglobulin22
3Cytokine profiles62

Major clusters of keywords.

Figure 8

Figure 8

Top16 keywords with the strongest citation bursts.

Discussion

This study uses a variety of bibliometric software and tools to analyze the published research article on AoSD based on the WoSCC database. Studies have shown that the earliest retrospective article was published in 1976 (28).

By 2020, the annual number of publications and citations of AoSD-related research showed an overall upward trend, thus highlighting the rapid development of AoSD studies and sustained interest in its research. However, as an orphan disease, AoSD has a low incidence in the population with the prevalence rate estimated to be one case per million people in Europe and 10 cases per million people in Japan (2, 3). This low incidence has translated into fewer published studies relative to other rheumatic diseases. From 1976 to 2020, a total of AoSD 2,199 articles were published indicating the growing importance of AoSD research in spite of its low incidence. In addition, compared with other rare immune-related diseases such as Primary Combined Immune Deficiency (26), Chediak-Higashi Syndrome (29), and Chronic Primary Granulomatous Disease (30), which publications were 866, 1,252, and 1,425, respectively. The result indicates that AoSD may attract more interest than these rare diseases in terms of publications. However, compared with common rheumatic immune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis (more than 190,000 articles) and systemic lupus erythematosus (more than 80,000 articles), the publication count of papers on AoSD is still significantly insufficient.

Through the comprehensive and systematic summary of the research topics, trends, and global research on the impact of AoSD, scholars can quickly and preliminarily understand the current state of AoSD research. The H-index reflects the academic achievements of countries, institutions, or individuals in a certain field. The higher the H-index, the greater the academic influence. From the perspective of regional distribution, the United States is the global leader in terms of both the number of published article and H-index in AoSD-related research. Specifically, AoSD research originating in the United States has significantly contributed to the field. However, in the current study, further analysis of research institutions and individuals revealed that France and Italy may have superior contributing roles to global AoSD research. This is especially valid when assessing the Top 10 authors by the number of publications and citations. Further, these data indicated that no American scholars were found in the Top 10, and French and Italian scholars occupy the majority.

Keyword cluster analysis can highlight current research hotspots. In agreement with the research direction of highly cited articles and co-cited references, our data indicate that the research hotspots of AoSD are mainly related to the identification and diagnosis of the disease. These hotspots may be attributed to the fact that as an orphan disease, the pathogenesis of AoSD is not clear, and multiple factors including heredity, infection, and immune dysfunction may contribute to AoSD development. As an immune-related disease, AoSD is difficult to distinguish from juvenile rheumatoid arthritis and rheumatoid arthritis (RA) in the initial clinical diagnosis.

Additionally, multiple difficulties exist in the diagnosis of AoSD resulting in a lack of a unifying clinical diagnostic gold standard. Traditionally, the diagnostic criteria for AoSD have mainly been based on four main symptoms including fever, arthritis or joint pain, rash, and increased white blood cell and neutrophil counts (14). Fautrel proposed a new diagnostic classification criterion in 2002. His set of eight diagnostic classification criteria included spiking fever ≥39°C, arthralgia, maculopapular rash, transient erythema, pharyngitis, leukocyte count ≥10,000/mm3, polymorphonuclear count ≥80%, and glycosylated ferritin ≤20%. Of these criteria, maculopapular rash and leukocyte count ≥10,000/mm3 are considered to be secondary, and the remaining six signs are considered to be the primary criteria. Using these parameters, a positive AoSD diagnosis would be defined as a patient presenting with four primary criteria, or three primary criteria +2 secondary criteria. Studies have shown that these diagnostic criteria have a higher sensitivity relative to traditional diagnostic strategies (31). Because the symptoms of AoSD are diverse and systemic, it is necessary to differentiate AoSD from a variety of other diseases such as infections, malignancies, and other chronic rheumatism during diagnosis. These newly proposed criteria may assist with this. There are still a variety of diagnostic and classification criteria (32), but most of the criteria are exclusionary diagnosis. Even after the diagnosis is made, the changes of the disease should be observed at any time during treatment and follow-up. Since the research on AoSD is relatively short and many contents are not yet perfect, developing a diagnostic standard with higher specificity is still a hotspot and difficulty in future research.

Previously, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, glucocorticoids, and disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs have been used for the treatment of AoSD; however, their curative effect is poor. Further, in ~40% of cases, patient symptoms remain unaffected by traditional treatment (33, 34). Common anti-rheumatic immune drugs such as interferon-γ, etanercept and anakinra are also widely used clinically (35). The activation of innate immunity and the dysregulation of cytokines are important mechanisms contributing to the pathogenesis of AoSD. IL-1β, IL-18, IL-6, and TNF-α are elevated in the serum, skin lesions, and synovial membrane of AoSD patients. The targeted therapy for these factors has been successfully applied in other models of chronic rheumatic disease and may provide a reference for the treatment of AoSD. Many studies have shown that biological agents have good safety and effectiveness in the treatment of refractory AoSD, but the sample size of clinical trials is obviously inadequate (20, 36, 37).

We found that research on targeted therapy for AoSD has been on the rise. As early as 2007, Efthimiou suggested that recent advances in basic immunology have improved our ability to hinder the pathogenic mechanisms associated with AoSD, and discussed the impact of targeted anti-inflammatory cytokine-based targeted therapies on AoSD (14, 38, 39). An increasing number of clinical trials have demonstrated that targeting these proinflammatory cytokines may be effective in controlling AoSD (40). Antagonists of IL-1β and its receptor have been successfully used to treat AoSD (41). Three anti-IL-1β biologics, namely, anakinra, canakinumab, and rilonacept, which are used to control AoSD, are currently available on the market. In the results of this study, Anakinra is one of the current research hotspots, and the publications of papers mentioning AoSD with Anakinra as 227 on WOS data. To our knowledge, a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, multicenter, phase III study to assess the efficacy and safety of anakinra in the treatment of AoSD (https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/study/NCT03265132), just concluded the update in June 2021, and no relevant literature has been published. In addition, systematic reviews are indicating that the use of IL-1β inhibitors in AoSD has led us to a new era of targeted therapy for AoSD (42). Whilst TNF-α inhibitors, as the first biological agent for the treatment of AoSD, have a good curative effect in chronic inflammatory joint diseases (especially RA), the curative effect in the treatment of AoSD is poor (43). Therefore, we believe that as molecular biology progresses, targeted therapy will play a more beneficial role in AoSD.

Due to the rarity of AoSD, many clinical studies are limited by small sample sizes and are thus underpowered. Furthermore, because of the varying clinical designs among different studies an accurate consensus is difficult to conclude. These are significant obstacles that need to be overcome to improve the credibility of published AoSD studies in the future.

Limitation

Analysis of AoSD article by Citespace and Vosviewer has some limitations. The first is the deadline for article retrieval by 2020, but as WoSCC continues to update, the number of articles retrieved in this study may be slightly different from the actual number of relevant articles. The Second, due to the possible time lag, the importance of some studies, especially some newly published article, may not be given sufficient attention at present. Finally, the use of single database WOSCC is also a limitation. However, its use can be further substantiated, as it provides more accurate document type labeling than other databases such as Scopus (44). And this research based on bibliometrics still well demonstrates the research hotspot and development trend of AoSD, especially providing reference for young scholars in scientific decision-making.

Conclusion

This study analyzed AoSD research published from 1976 to 2020. Furthermore, we summarized the regional distribution, journal category, article citation, main cooperative groups, and keyword clustering related to AoSD research. As an understudied, orphan disease, the mechanisms and pathogenesis of AoSD still need to be elucidated. The development of targeted AoSD therapy is a relatively effective and safe. However, existing clinical research samples sizes are small and prone to Type I or Type II errors. It is necessary to further expand the clinical sample size and clarify the safety and effectiveness of biological agents. This study provides key insights into current AoSD research and can be used as a useful resource for researchers in the field to identify hotspots and trends.

Publisher's Note

All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article, or claim that may be made by its manufacturer, is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

Statements

Data availability statement

The original contributions presented in the study are included in the article/supplementary material, further inquiries can be directed to the corresponding author/s.

Author contributions

BX and BB conceived the study. BX, JW, and XM collected the data. BB re-examined the data. BB and XM analyzed the data. BX wrote the manuscript. JW, BB, and XM reviewed and revised the manuscript. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

Acknowledgments

We really appreciate for the guest editors' inspiration and continuous support on this research.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

References

  • 1.

    BywatersEG. Still's disease in the adult. Ann Rheum Dis. (1971) 30:12133. 10.1136/ard.30.2.121

  • 2.

    Magadur-JolyGBillaudEBarrierJHPennecYLMassonCRenouPet al. Epidemiology of adult Still's disease: estimate of the incidence by a retrospective study in west France. Ann Rheum Dis. (1995) 54:58790. 10.1136/ard.54.7.587

  • 3.

    WakaiKOhtaATamakoshiAOhnoYKawamuraTAokiRet al. Estimated prevalence and incidence of adult Still's disease: findings by a nationwide epidemiological survey in Japan. J Epidemiol. (1997) 7:2215. 10.2188/jea.7.221

  • 4.

    TerkeltaubREsdaileJMDécaryFHarthMListerJLapointeN. HLA-Bw35 and prognosis in adult Still's disease. Arthritis Rheum. (1981) 24:146972. 10.1002/art.1780241203

  • 5.

    WoutersJMReekersPvan de PutteLB. Adult-onset Still's disease. Disease course and HLA associations. Arthritis Rheum. (1986) 29:4158. 10.1002/art.1780290316

  • 6.

    FujiiTNojimaTYasuokaHSatohSNakamuraKKuwanaMet al. Cytokine and immunogenetic profiles in Japanese patients with adult Still's disease. Association with chronic articular disease. Rheumatology. (2001) 40:1398404. 10.1093/rheumatology/40.12.1398

  • 7.

    JoungCILeeHSLeeSWKimCGSongYHJunJBet al. Association between HLA-DR B1 and clinical features of adult onset Still's disease in Korea. Clin Exp Rheumatol. (2003) 21:48992.

  • 8.

    PouchotJSampalisJSBeaudetFCaretteSDécaryFSalusinsky-SternbachMet al. Adult Still's disease: manifestations, disease course, and outcome in 62 patients. Medicine. (1991) 70:11836. 10.1097/00005792-199103000-00004

  • 9.

    FishmanDFauldsGJefferyRMohamed-AliVYudkinJSHumphriesSet al. The effect of novel polymorphisms in the interleukin-6 (IL-6) gene on IL-6 transcription and plasma IL-6 levels, and an association with systemic-onset juvenile chronic arthritis. J Clin Invest. (1998) 102:136976. 10.1172/JCI2629

  • 10.

    ChenDYChenYMChenHHHsiehCWLinCCLanJL. Functional association of interleukin 18 gene-607 (C/A) promoter polymorphisms with disease course in Chinese patients with adult-onset Still's disease. J Rheumatol. (2009) 36:22849. 10.3899/jrheum.090316

  • 11.

    WangFFHuangXFShenNLengLBucalaRChenSLet al. A genetic role for macrophage migration inhibitory factor (MIF) in adult-onset Still's disease. Arthritis Res Ther. (2013) 15:R65. 10.1186/ar4239

  • 12.

    YashiroMFurukawaHAsanoTSatoSKobayashiHWatanabeHet al. Serum amyloid A1 (SAA1) gene polymorphisms in Japanese patients with adult-onset Still's disease. Medicine. (2018) 97:e13394. 10.1097/MD.0000000000013394

  • 13.

    Gerfaud-ValentinMJamillouxYIwazJSèveP. Adult-onset Still's disease. Autoimmun Rev. (2014) 13:70822. 10.1016/j.autrev.2014.01.058

  • 14.

    FeistEMitrovicSFautrelB. Mechanisms, biomarkers and targets for adult-onset Still's disease. Nat Rev Rheumatol. (2018) 14:60318. 10.1038/s41584-018-0081-x

  • 15.

    HsiehCWChenYMLinCCTangKTChenHHHungWTet al. Elevated expression of the NLRP3 inflammasome and its correlation with disease activity in adult-onset Still disease. J Rheumatol. (2017) 44:114250. 10.3899/jrheum.161354

  • 16.

    HuQShiHZengTLiuHSuYChengXet al. Increased neutrophil extracellular traps activate NLRP3 and inflammatory macrophages in adult-onset Still's disease. Arthritis Res Ther. (2019) 21:9. 10.1186/s13075-018-1800-z

  • 17.

    RauMSchillerMKrienkeSHeyderPLorenzHBlankN. Clinical manifestations but not cytokine profiles differentiate adult-onset Still's disease and sepsis. J Rheumatol. (2010) 37:236976. 10.3899/jrheum.100247

  • 18.

    ChoiJHSuhCHLeeYMSuhYJLeeSKKimSSet al. Serum cytokine profiles in patients with adult onset Still's disease. J Rheumatol. (2003) 30:24227.

  • 19.

    ChenDYLanJLLinFJHsiehTY. Proinflammatory cytokine profiles in sera and pathological tissues of patients with active untreated adult onset Still's disease. J Rheumatol. (2004) 31:218998.

  • 20.

    MaYWuMZhangXXiaQYangJXuSet al. Efficacy and safety of tocilizumab with inhibition of interleukin-6 in adult-onset Still's disease: a meta-analysis. Mod Rheumatol. (2018) 28:8497. 10.1080/14397595.2017.1416924

  • 21.

    MariaATLe QuellecAJorgensenCTouitouIRivièreSGuilpainP. Adult onset Still's disease (AOSD) in the era of biologic therapies: dichotomous view for cytokine and clinical expressions. Autoimmun Rev. (2014) 13:114959. 10.1016/j.autrev.2014.08.032

  • 22.

    ChenDYChenYMChenHHHsiehCWLinCCLanJL. The associations of circulating CD4+CD25high regulatory T cells and TGF-β with disease activity and clinical course in patients with adult-onset Still's disease. Connect Tissue Res. (2010) 51:3707. 10.3109/03008200903461462

  • 23.

    DongQLiangQChenYLiJLuLHuangXet al. Bibliometric and visual analysis of vascular calcification research. Front Pharmacol. (2021) 12:690392. 10.3389/fphar.2021.690392

  • 24.

    van EckNJWaltmanL. Software survey: VOSviewer, a computer program for bibliometric mapping. Scientometrics. (2010) 84:52338. 10.1007/s11192-009-0146-3

  • 25.

    YamaguchiMOhtaATsunematsuTKasukawaRMizushimaYKashiwagiHet al. Preliminary criteria for classification of adult Still's disease. J Rheumatol. (1992) 19:42430.

  • 26.

    GriffithLMCowanMJNotarangeloLDKohnDBPuckJMShearerWTet al. Primary immune deficiency treatment consortium (PIDTC) update. J Allergy Clin Immunol. (2016) 138:37585. 10.1016/j.jaci.2016.01.051

  • 27.

    GabayCLamacchiaCPalmerG. IL-1 pathways in inflammation and human diseases. Nat Rev Rheumatol. (2010) 6:23241. 10.1038/nrrheum.2010.4

  • 28.

    StrumpfIJLazarJDCassidyJT. Adult-onset Still's disease. Am Fam Physician. (1976) 13:1078

  • 29.

    KaplanJDe DomenicoIWardDM. Chediak-Higashi syndrome. Curr Opin Hematol. (2008) 15:229. 10.1097/MOH.0b013e3282f2bcce

  • 30.

    YuHHYangYHChiangBL. Chronic granulomatous disease: a comprehensive review. Clin Rev Allergy Immunol. (2021) 61:10113. 10.1007/s12016-020-08800-x

  • 31.

    FautrelBZingEGolmardJLLe MoelGBisseryARiouxCet al. Proposal for a new set of classification criteria for adult-onset still disease. Medicine. (2002) 81:194200. 10.1097/00005792-200205000-00003

  • 32.

    JiangLWangZDaiXJinX. Evaluation of clinical measures and different criteria for diagnosis of adult-onset Still's disease in a Chinese population. J Rheumatol. (2011) 38:7416. 10.3899/jrheum.100766

  • 33.

    FranchiniSDagnaLSalvoFAielloPBaldisseraESabbadiniMG. Efficacy of traditional and biologic agents in different clinical phenotypes of adult-onset Still's disease. Arthritis Rheum. (2010) 62:25305. 10.1002/art.27532

  • 34.

    CastañedaSBlancoRGonzález-GayMA. Adult-onset Still's disease: advances in the treatment. Best Pract Res Clin Rheumatol. (2016) 30:22238. 10.1016/j.berh.2016.08.003

  • 35.

    KallioliasGDLiossisSN. The future of the IL-1 receptor antagonist anakinra: from rheumatoid arthritis to adult-onset Still's disease and systemic-onset juvenile idiopathic arthritis. Expert Opin Investig Drugs. (2008) 17:34959. 10.1517/13543784.17.3.349

  • 36.

    HusniMEMaierALMeasePJOvermanSSFraserPGravalleseEMet al. Etanercept in the treatment of adult patients with Still's disease. Arthritis Rheum. (2002) 46:11716. 10.1002/art.10231

  • 37.

    JungeGMasonJFeistE. Adult onset Still's disease-the evidence that anti-interleukin-1 treatment is effective and well-tolerated (a comprehensive article review). Semin Arthritis Rheum. (2017) 47:295302. 10.1016/j.semarthrit.2017.06.006

  • 38.

    EfthimiouPKontziasAWardCMOgdenNS. Adult-onset Still's disease: can recent advances in our understanding of its pathogenesis lead to targeted therapy?Nat Clin Pract Rheumatol. (2007) 3:32835. 10.1038/ncprheum0510

  • 39.

    EfthimiouPKontziasAHurPRodhaKRamakrishnaGSNakasatoP. Adult-onset Still's disease in focus: clinical manifestations, diagnosis, treatment, and unmet needs in the era of targeted therapies. Semin Arthritis Rheum. (2021) 51:85874. 10.1016/j.semarthrit.2021.06.004

  • 40.

    LiSZhengSTangSPanYZhangSFangHet al. Autoinflammatory pathogenesis and targeted therapy for adult-onset Still's disease. Clin Rev Allergy Immunol. (2020) 58:7181. 10.1007/s12016-019-08747-8

  • 41.

    ZhouSQiaoJBaiJWuYFangH. Biological therapy of traditional therapy-resistant adult-onset Still's disease: an evidence-based review. Ther Clin Risk Manag. (2018) 14:16771. 10.2147/TCRM.S155488

  • 42.

    KedorCTomarasSBaeumerDFeistE. Update on the therapy of adult-onset Still's disease with a focus on IL-1-inhibition: a systematic review. Ther Adv Musculoskelet Dis. (2021) 13:1759720X211059598. 10.1177/1759720X211059598

  • 43.

    FautrelBSibiliaJMarietteXCombeB. Tumour necrosis factor alpha blocking agents in refractory adult Still's disease: an observational study of 20 cases. Ann Rheum Dis. (2005) 64:2626. 10.1136/ard.2004.024026

  • 44.

    YeungAWK. Comparison between scopus, web of science, pubmed and publishers for mislabelled review papers. Curr Sci. (2019) 116:190914. 10.18520/cs/v116/i11/1909-1914

Summary

Keywords

Adult-onset Still Disease (AoSD), bibliometrics, research trend, VOSviewer, Citespace

Citation

Xu B, Wang J, Meng X and Bao B (2022) Bibliometrics and Visual Analysis of Adult-onset Still Disease (1976–2020). Front. Public Health 10:884780. doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2022.884780

Received

27 February 2022

Accepted

13 May 2022

Published

15 June 2022

Volume

10 - 2022

Edited by

Georgi Iskrov, Plovdiv Medical University, Bulgaria

Reviewed by

Luwen Zhu, Heilongjiang University of Chinese Medicine, China; Andy Wai Kan Yeung, University of Hong Kong, China

Updates

Copyright

*Correspondence: Xiaoying Meng Binghao Bao

This article was submitted to Public Health Education and Promotion, a section of the journal Frontiers in Public Health

Disclaimer

All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

Outline

Figures

Cite article

Copy to clipboard


Export citation file


Share article

Article metrics