Demographics and clinical implications of a global bibliographic profile for the hypertrophic cardiomyopathy literature over 66 years (1960–2025)

BACKGROUND Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) is a common cardiac disease clinically-recognized worldwide; however, limited information is available concerning the demographic profile and significance of its evolving peer-reviewed literature. OBJECTIVES Assess the global distribution and characteristics of the HCM-related literature from 1960 to 2024 . METHODS Publications describing HCM were retrieved from the National Library of Medicine via PubMed from 1960 to 2025. Changes in publication counts across the 66 years were quantified. Additionally, trends were stratified by country of origin and geographic region. RESULTS The number of HCM publications increased significantly over time (P < 0.001), from 59 in 1960-1965 to 6454 in 2020-2025, a 109-fold increase that notably exceeded the increase in overall cardiovascular publications during the same time-period. The number of countries from which papers originated also increased significantly (P < 0.001), from 11 in 1960-1965 to 78 in 2020-2025, a 7-fold increase. Overall, the largest contributor was the U.S. (n = 5513 publications comprising 30% of the literature), followed by China (n = 1819, 10%), Japan (n = 1729, 9%), Italy (n = 1302, 7%), and United Kingdom (n = 1194, 7%). Notably, publications from China increased by 203-fold from 1960 to 2000 to 2020-2025, with Asia becoming the predominant continent in 2025. Fifty-percent of publications from countries contributing only >2010 were not original investigations, and none appeared in high-impact journals. CONCLUSIONS While the US has remained the largest contributor of HCM-related publications >65 years, the peer-reviewed literature has become increasingly diverse, now including almost 100 countries globally and an increasingly substantial proportion from China and the Asian continent. This evolving profile has allowed for enhanced understanding of HCM and its particularly broad clinical spectrum, likely improving care for patients with this disease worldwide. However, sparse data from several populous regions constitute an unmet need in HCM.