Key result
China leads publication volume with ~34% of global CHD T-cell immunity research, while US leads citations.
Why the study?
T cell-mediated adaptive immunity plays a pivotal role in atherosclerotic plaque formation and destabilisation in coronary heart disease, yet a systematic, quantitative mapping of this research landscape was lacking.
Answers are grounded in this paper and cite their sources.
This bibliometric analysis maps over three decades of research on T cell immunity in coronary heart disease, highlighting a recent research shift toward the macrophage-T cell immune axis, regulatory T cell therapies, and machine learning-assisted risk stratification.
Background: Coronary heart disease (CHD) remains the leading cause of global cardiovascular mortality. T cell-mediated adaptive immunity, particularly Th1, regulatory T cell (Treg), and Th17 subsets, plays a pivotal role in atherosclerotic plaque formation and destabilisation, yet a systematic, quantitative mapping of this research landscape is lacking. Methods: Publications on T cell immunity in CHD from 1991 to August 2026 were retrieved from the Web of Science Core Collection, restricted to English-language original articles. Bibliometric indicators were analysed with Microsoft Excel, VOSviewer (v1.6.20), CiteSpace (v6.4.R1), and bibliometric.com. Co-authorship, keyword co-occurrence, and burst-keyword analyses were performed. Results: A total of 761 articles from 5,796 authors across 58 countries/regions and 299 journals were identified. Annual output increased markedly after 2010. China contributed the largest number of articles (n = 255, 33.5%), while the USA led in total citations (n = 8552), followed by China (n = 6,965) and Germany (n = 4,110). The most prolific and most highly cited author was Hansson Goran K. (14 publications; H-index = 13), while Becker AE achieved the highest average citation impact (248.0 citations per article). Circulation (IF = 35.5) was the leading journal by both article count (n = 33) and citations (n = 2,725). Keyword clustering revealed eight major research themes: clinical translation and computational approaches, T cell activation and immune cell interactions, classic immunopathology and plaque biology, inflammation and infectious triggers, Treg biology and T helper subsets, cytokine regulation and apoptosis, plaque vulnerability and ACS, and antigen presentation and extracellular vesicles. Burst analysis identified “machine learning”, “monocytes”, and “risk” as the most prominent emerging topics since 2023. Conclusion: Research on T cell immunity in CHD has grown markedly, with a clear shift toward the macrophage–T cell immune axis and immune-metabolic interactions, together with Treg-based therapeutic strategies and machine learning-assisted risk stratification. These findings provide a descriptive map that may help inform future translational research.
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Hua et al. (2026) studied Coronary heart disease (n=761). T cell immunity research in coronary heart disease was evaluated on Bibliometric publication output, citation impact, keyword clustering, and burst keywords. T cell immunity research in coronary heart disease encompassed 761 articles from 1991 to 2026, led in volume by China (33.5%) and in citations by the USA (8,552 citations).
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