Bibliometric Analysis of Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Studies on Acupuncture Analgesia Over the Past 20 Years

Liuyang Huang; Guixing Xu; Jiamei He; Hao Tian; Zhuo Zhou; Fengyuan Huang; Yilin Liu; Mingsheng Sun; Fanrong Liang

doi:10.2147/JPR.S340961

Bibliometric Analysis of Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Studies on Acupuncture Analgesia Over the Past 20 Years

J Pain Res. 2021 Dec 10:14:3773-3789. doi: 10.2147/JPR.S340961. eCollection 2021.

Authors

Liuyang Huang¹, Guixing Xu¹, Jiamei He¹, Hao Tian¹, Zhuo Zhou¹, Fengyuan Huang¹, Yilin Liu¹, Mingsheng Sun¹, Fanrong Liang²

Affiliations

¹ Acupuncture and Tuina School/The 3rd Teaching Hospital, Chengdu University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Chengdu, Sichuan, People's Republic of China.
² Acupuncture and Tuina School/The 3rd Teaching Hospital, Chengdu University of Traditional Chinese Medicine/Clinical Research Center for Acupuncture and Moxibustion in Sichuan Province, Chengdu, Sichuan, People's Republic of China.

Abstract

Background: Researches on the central mechanisms of acupuncture analgesia have been widely conducted worldwide. However, there is no bibliometric analysis of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies on acupuncture analgesia. This study visualized the current status, hot spots and frontiers of fMRI studies on acupuncture analgesia in the past 20 years to provide a theoretical basis for its clinical application.

Methods: All publications were obtained from Science Citation Index-Expanded (SCI-E) of Web of Science (WOS). We used CiteSpace to analyze publications, journals, cited journals, authors, cited authors, institutions, countries, references, and keywords. We also analyzed collaborative network maps and co-occurrence network maps.

Results: We retrieved a total of 797 articles. Regarding the volume of publications, the total number of annual publications showed a fluctuating but overall increasing trend. Evidence-based Complementary and Alternative Medicine (21 articles) was the most productive journal, and Pain (225 articles) was the most cited journal. The most productive author was Qin W (16 articles), and the most co-cited author was Hui KKS (111). The most prolific institution and country were Massachusetts General Hospital (34 articles) and USA (212 articles). "Pain" was the top-ranked for keyword frequency and centrality. "Functional connectivity" was the frontier hotspot for 2018-2021.

Conclusion: First, fMRI researches on acupuncture analgesia involved several countries (regions) and institutions, mainly located in the USA, China and Korea, and most of them were universities. In addition, the USA was a major contributor in this field. Second, in terms of disciplinary distribution, the literatures were mainly from clinical neurology, neuroscience, and radiology nuclear medicine medical imaging. Third, the keyword co-occurrence analysis showed that the hot keywords included pain, fMRI, and lower back pain. Fourth, through keyword clustering analysis, the hot disease was found to be lower back pain, and the hot contents were acupuncture specificity and frequency specificity. Fifth, a timeline analysis of the references identified that chronic low back pain and specificity will remain a hot topic for future research.

Keywords: CiteSpace; acupuncture analgesia; bibliometric analysis; functional magnetic resonance imaging.

Publication types

Review

Grants and funding

This study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (81774400); the Key Research Program of Science and Technology Department of Sichuan Province (21ZDYF0805).