Cardiovascular risk and urolithiasis: underestimated or unknown relationship?

Objective: Urolithiasis, a multifactorial disease, is increasingly recognized for its association with cardiovascular disease (CVD), a leading global cause of morbidity and mortality. Despite the establishment of links between urolithiasis and CVD risk factors such as diabetes, obesity, and hypertension, this relationship remains underexplored. This study aims to characterize the trend of information regarding cardiovascular risk and urolithiasis through comprehensive bibliometric analysis, highlighting the importance of investigating this association further. Materials and Methods: We searched publications between 2002 and 2022 on the Web of Science (WOS) database, filtered by exclusion criteria. Impact factor (IF) 2021 and Journal Citation Reports (JCR) were evaluated and analyzed by mapping using VOSviewer. Results: We obtained 63 articles from 49 journals over the last two decades, identifying an increase in publications in the last two years without a rising annual trend. Gambaro G is the author of most citations (12,317), underscoring the extent of the global and interdisciplinary effort in understanding the cardiovascular implications of urolithiasis. Our findings highlight the varied impact of journals, with IFs ranging from 1 to 10.6, and point to a significant yet overlooked global research interest in the intersection between urolithiasis and cardiovascular risk. The USA was the country with the most publications (20.6%) followed by Taiwan (12.6%) and Spain (9.5%). Despite the observed increase, the rate of publications especially in high-impact journals remains low, particularly in Latin America, indicating a need for heightened research efforts in this important field. Conclusion: This bibliometric analysis underscores a growing yet insufficient global scholarly interest in the relationship between urolithiasis and cardiovascular risk. Despite some high-impact publications, the overall scarcity points to a need for increased research efforts, particularly in underrepresented regions such as Latin America. The study calls for a broader interdisciplinary collaboration to further understand and address the cardiovascular implications of urolithiasis, aiming to improve patient care and outcomes in this significant public health intersection.