Bibliometric Analysis of Literature on Antifungal Triazole Resistance: 1980–2015

Background: Triazole antifungal agents play an important role in the treatment of a wide range of fungal infections. Little is known about antifungal triazole drug resistance when compared to antibiotic resistance. Therefore, this study was carried out to give a bibliometric overview of literature on triazole antifungal drug resistance. Methods: Keywords related to triazole drug class and resistance were used in a search query in the Scopus search engine. The time span was set from 1980 to 2015. Data pertaining to growth of publications, the most active countries and institutions, the most cited articles, and mapping of molecular mechanisms of resistance were analyzed. Results: A total of 1648 journal articles were retrieved with an average of 20.46 citations per article. Annual growth of triazole resistance showed an increasing pattern during the study period. The United States of America (n = 446; 27.06%) ranked first in productivity followed by the United Kingdom (UK) (n = 176; 10.68%), and China (n = 133; 8.07%). Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Centre (n = 69, 4.19%) in the Netherlands ranked first in productivity, while the journal Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy ranked first (n = 255; 15.47%) in publishing articles on triazole resistance. Mapping mechanisms of resistance showed that efflux pump and mutations in target enzyme are major mechanisms described in resistance to triazoles. Conclusion: There was a growth of publications on triazole resistance in the past two decades with the bulk of publications on triazole resistance in Candida species. The data presented here will serve as baseline information for future comparative purposes.