Outlining the keyword co-occurrence trends in Shuanghuanglian injection research: A bibliometric study using CiteSpace Ⅲ

To explore the evolvement and new trends in the use of Shuanghuanglian injection (SHLI).

China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), PubMed, and Embase were extensively searched using the search terms “Shuanghuanglian injection” and “Shuanghuanglian fenzhen” to retrieve articles relevant to SHLI (1992–2020). Retrieved articles were further investigated by two authors to exclude those unrelated to SHLI. The bibliographical references of the included articles were exported as raw data and then treated using the CiteSpace tool to visualize the mapping of the SHLI research domain. Essential clusters and highly frequent keywords were quantified for further analysis. The clusters were automatically labeled by the algorithm of tf∗idf for objective analysis. Basic bibliometric features, including article types and yearly trend in article numbers were also determined and discussed.

The modules of the keywords of interest presented clear boundaries with a high modularity score (Q = 0.73). High-confidence clusters were identified, including bioactivity fingerprint (S = 0.99), equal pupils (S = 0.91), drug preparation department (S = 0.87), difficulty in respiration (S = 0.85), peristalsis (0.88), and Danshen powder injection (S = 0.94). The characteristic keywords in terms of frequency and burstiness were Shuanghuanglian powder for injection (F = 235, B = 5.22), SHLI (F = 112, B = 11.39), and adverse drug reactions (ADRs; F = 104, B = 7.35).

In the field of SHLI study, there are five major topic categories: bioactivity fingerprint; ADR mechanism and cause detection; proper preparation; clinical evidence accumulation; and efficacy in diseases with no effective treatment and combination usage. The trend for using modern methodologies from a science-based perspective to study SHLI will continue to exist. The causes of multi-factorial ADRs may be an important topic for future studies.