Aims Comprehensive data on research undertaken in cardiovascular medicine can inform
the scientific community and can support policy building. We used the publication
output from 2004 to 2013 and the 2014 references to these documents, to identify research
topics and trends in the field of cardiovascular disease.Methods and results Text
fragments were extracted from the titles and abstracts of 478 000 publications using
natural language processing. Through machine-learning algorithms, these text fragments
combined to identify specific topics across all publications. A second method, which
included cross-references, assigned each publication document to a specific cluster.
Experts named the topics and document clusters based on various outputs from these
semi-automatic methods. We identified and labelled 175 cardiovascular topics and 20
large document clusters, with concordance between the approaches. Overarching, strongly
growing topics in clinical and population sciences are evidence-based guidance for
treatment, research on outcomes, prognosis, and risk factors. 'Hot' topics include
novel treatments in valve disease and in coronary artery disease, and imaging. Basic
research decreases its share over time but sees substantial growth of research on
stem cells and tissue engineering, as well as in translational research. Inflammation,
biomarkers, metabolic syndrome, obesity, and lipids are hot topics across population,
clinical and basic research, supporting integration across the cardiovascular field.Conclusion
Growth in clinical and population research emphasizes improving patient outcomes through
novel treatments, risk stratification, and prevention. Translation and innovation
redefine basic research in cardiovascular disease. Medical need, funding and publishing
policies, and scientific opportunities are potential drivers for these evolutions.
