Abstract
BackgroundEpilepsy during pregnancy presents a unique set of challenges for pregnant women, the fetus, and the health care community. As research in this area advances rapidly, it is critical to keep up with the emerging trends and key turning points of the development of the domain knowledge. This study aimed to construct a series of science maps to quantitatively and qualitatively evaluate the intellectual landscape and research frontiers in the field of epilepsy during pregnancy research.MethodsAll publications were extracted from the Web of Science Core Collection database. Bibliometric analysis was used to analyze the scientific research outputs, including journals, countries/regions, institutions, authors (cited authors), intellectual base and research hotspots.ResultsA total of 2,225 publications related to epilepsy during pregnancy were identified as published between 2000 and 2018. The overall trend of the number of publications showed a fluctuating growth from 59 articles in 2000 to 198 in 2018. Neurology was the leading journal in the field of epilepsy and pregnancy research both in terms of impact factor score (8.055) and H-index value (77). The US retained its leading position and exerted a pivotal influence in this area. The University of Melbourne was identified as a good research institution for research collaboration. Prof. Pennell and Tomson have made great achievements in this area, and Prof. Tomson laid a foundation for the development of this domain. The keyword “neonatal seizures” ranked first in research hotspots, and the keyword “autism spectrum disorders (ASD)” ranked first in research frontiers.ConclusionsEpilepsy during pregnancy is a fascinating and rapid development of subject matter. A more recent emerging trend focused on comprehensive management of pregnant and lactating women, evaluation of the safety and efficacy of newer antiepileptic drugs. The keywords “management issue,” “brain injury,” “meta-analysis,” “in utero exposure,” and “ASD” were the latest research frontiers and should be closely observed.
Highlights
Epilepsy is one of the most common chronic neurological diseases caused by excessive discharge of brain neurons, and is characterized by recurrent, episodic, and transientHow to cite this article Wang M, Li W, Tao Y, Zhao L. 2019
The search terms were used for the following terms (Dataset S1) with a time span ranging from January 01, 1986 to December 31, 2018: ((“convulsion” OR “epilepsy” OR “seizure”) OR (“antiepileptic” OR “anticonvulsant” OR “antiepileptic drugs (AEDs)” OR “phenytoin” OR “phenobarbital” OR “divalproex” OR “valproic acid” OR “carbamazepine” OR “oxcarbazepine” OR “levetiracetam” OR “gabapentin” OR “lamotrigine” OR “topiramate”)) AND (“pregnancy” OR “pregnancies” OR “gestation” OR “pregnant” OR “maternal” OR “fetus” OR “foetus” OR “newborn”) AND Language = English, only original articles and reviews were included
Analysis methods We reviewed the characteristics of publications by establishing “The Web of Science Core Collection (WoSCC) Literature Analysis Report” online, including distribution of countries/regions, institutions, journals and authors, number of annual publications, citation counts and H-index
Summary
Epilepsy is one of the most common chronic neurological diseases caused by excessive discharge of brain neurons, and is characterized by recurrent, episodic, and transientHow to cite this article Wang M, Li W, Tao Y, Zhao L. 2019. In utero exposure to AEDs is associated with an increased risk of certain fetal congenital malformations (especially neural tube defects) and long-term cognitive and/or motor impairments (Banach et al, 2010; Tomson et al, 2018; Veroniki et al, 2017a) In view of these challenges, extensive research on basic medicine, clinical medicine, and epidemiology related to epilepsy during pregnancy has been widely carried out worldwide, and a large number of papers have been published. Epilepsy during pregnancy presents a unique set of challenges for pregnant women, the fetus, and the health care community As research in this area advances rapidly, it is critical to keep up with the emerging trends and key turning points of the development of the domain knowledge. The keywords “management issue,” “brain injury,” “meta-analysis,” “in utero exposure,” and “ASD” were the latest research frontiers and should be closely observed
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