Current research status of cytomegalovirus infection after hematopoietic stem cell transplantation: a bibliometric analysis

Background: Hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) is an effective method for the treatment of hematological malignancies, severe aplastic anemia, and myelodysplastic syndromes. The most common infectious complication after HSCT is cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection. The purpose of this study was to analyze the status of research related to CMV infection after HSCT by conducting a literature search for CMV, hematopoietic, and stem cell transplantation. Methods: The Science Citation Index Expanded (SCI-E) database in the Web of Science Core Collection (WOSCC) was used as the target database for our literature search. The subject search terms were CMV, hematopoietic, and stem cell transplantation, with the logical operation 'AND'. The search date range was from 1900 to June 15, 2021. We used CiteSpace software to analyze the literature. The analysis included: the annual change in the number of publications, the annual change in the number of references cited, the distribution of countries, the distribution of institutions, the distribution of journals, the distribution of authors, and the use of keywords. Results: A total of 1,476 relevant documents were retrieved. The top 5 countries for number of publications were the United States, Germany, Japan, China, and Italy, while the top 5 countries for centrality scores were the United States, Australia, Germany, France, and Italy. The top 5 institutions for the number of publications were: Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, the University of Washington, the University of Minnesota, Karolinska Institute, and Peking University. The top 4 institutions for centrality scores were: Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Henri-Mondor Hospital, the National Cancer Center, Karolinska University Hospital, and the University of Pavia. There were only 4 authors with a centrality score of 0.01. The literature was mainly published in top hematology journals and journals for immunization and transplantation. The top 5 keywords used were: cytomegalovirus, bone marrow transplantation, recipient, infection, and versus host disease. Conclusions: We found that CMV infection after HSCT has been attracting more and more attention by researchers, and that treatment has been the focus of current research.