ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Med.
Sec. Precision Medicine
Volume 12 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fmed.2025.1591906
Research Status and Trends of Drug-Coated Balloons in Coronary Artery Disease: A Bibliometric Analysis
Provisionally accepted
- Beijing Anzhen Hospital, Capital Medical University, Chaoyang District, China
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Objective: Drug-coated balloons have emerged as a pivotal alternative to drug-eluting stents in the interventional management of coronary artery disease , particularly showing clinical advantages in the treatment of in-stent restenosis and small-vessel disease. This study provides a systematic bibliometric analysis of publication trends, research hotspots, and future directions in DCB-related CAD research from 2004 to June 2025.Methods: A total of 1,092 publications indexed in the Web of Science, Scopus, and PubMed databases were analyzed using CiteSpace, VOSviewer, and bibliometrix.Inclusion criteria were English-language papers, while case reports, conference proceedings, news articles, and duplicate publications were excluded. The analysis focused on publication trends, country/institutional contributions, author collaboration networks, journal analysis, co-citation literature, and keyword evolution. Results: Three distinct developmental phases of DCB research were identified: (1) device optimization (2004-2010), (2) clinical validation (2010-2017), and (3) application to complex lesions (2018-present). China led in publication volume (n = 180), while Germany and Italy demonstrated the highest research impact. Leading research institutions included Capital Medical University and Friedrich Schiller University of Jena. High-impact journals such as JACC: Cardiovascular Interventions and EuroIntervention served as key publication venues, with a focus on clinical outcomes and intravascular imaging. Keyword analysis revealed a growing emphasis on intravascular imaging modalities and emerging drug-coating technologies in recent research. Conclusion: DCB are now established as a standard of care for ISR (Class IA recommendation), with accumulating evidence supporting their efficacy and safety in small-vessel coronary disease. However, their application in complex lesions requires further validation through multicenter randomized controlled trials. Future research should focus on optimizing drug coating technologies, refining imaging-guided strategies, exploring new anti-proliferative drugs, and establishing more precise eligibility criteria for treatment.In the three-field plot linking countries, institutions, and journals in DCB-related coronary artery disease research (Supplementary Figure 5), Germany was found to have affiliations with 16 institutions, including
Keywords: Drug-coated balloon, Coronary Artery Disease, Bibliometrics, Research trends, Biocompatible Materials
Received: 11 Mar 2025; Accepted: 06 Aug 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Yu, Jiao, Wang, Zhang and Yin. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Ming Zhang, Beijing Anzhen Hospital, Capital Medical University, Chaoyang District, China
Chengqian Yin, Beijing Anzhen Hospital, Capital Medical University, Chaoyang District, China
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.