Biomarker discovery in obstructive sleep apnea: A bibliometric mapping of research frontiers (2000-2023).

OBJECTIVE

Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is a harmful, complex and heterogeneous disease with limited diagnostic and therapeutic frameworks. This study analyzed global research output on OSA biomarkers to help advance precision sleep medicine.

STUDY

DESIGN

A bibliometric approach.

SETTING

We conducted a keyword search in the Web of Science Core Collection (2000-2023) to identify research and review articles on OSA biomarkers.

METHODS

VOSviewer, CiteSpace, and R were performed to analyze annual publications, citations, contributions, co-authorships, and co-occurrences, identifying the most productive and highly cited countries, authors, institutions, journals, keywords, and references.

RESULTS

The analysis included 1108 publications. Annual publication counts, and citations have consistently increased over the past two decades. The United States of America leads OSA biomarker research in volume and citation impact, with extensive collaboration with China. Dr. Gozal D is the leading author. The University of Chicago is the top institution regarding publications and citations. Sleep and Breathing, Sleep Medicine, and Sleep are the most productive journals. Sleep is the most cited, followed by the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, Chest, and Circulation. Over half of the top journals are high-impact Q1, including The New England Journal of Medicine, indicating significant academic interest. Recent research focuses on comorbidities, pathogenic mechanisms, and indicators of phenotype and endotype, which are likely future trends.

CONCLUSION

We identified research hotspots, trends and leading contributors to OSA biomarkers. These results may benefit further studies to better understand OSA's heterogeneity and improve diagnosis, risk identification, and prognosis prediction.