IntroductionIn recent years, the concept of living systematic review (LSR) has attracted the attention of many scholars and institutions. A growing number of studies have been conducted based on LSR methodology, but their focus direction is unclear. The objective of this study was to provide a comprehensive review of existing LSR-related studies and to analyse their whole picture and future trends with bibliometrics.MethodsA comprehensive search strategy was used to construct a representative dataset of LSRs up to October 2021. GraphPad V.8.2.1 and Mindmaster Pro presented the basic information of the included studies and the timeline of LSR development, respectively. The author and country cooperation network, hotspot distribution clustering, historical citation network and future development trend prediction related to LSR were visualised by VOSviewer V.1.6.16 and R-Studio V.1.4.ResultsA total of 213 studies were eventually included. The concept of LSR was first proposed in 2014, and the number of studies has proliferated since 2020. There was a closer collaboration between author teams and more frequent LSR research development and collaboration in Europe, North America and Australia. Numerous LSR studies have been published in high-impact journals. COVID-19 is the predominant disease of concern at this stage, and the rehabilitation of its patients and virological studies are possible directions of research in LSR for a long time to come. A review of existing studies found that more than half of the LSR series had not yet been updated and that the method needed to be more standardised in practice.ConclusionAlthough LSR has a relatively short history, it has received much attention and currently has a high overall acceptance. The LSR methodology was further practised in COVID-19, and we look forward to seeing it applied in more areas.

Objective: To systematically review the clinical practice guidelines (CPGs) for the treatment of patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) using Chinese herbal medicine (CHM), assess the methodological quality as well as clinical credibility and implementability of specific recommendations, and summarize key recommendations.Methods: As of April 2022, we conducted a comprehensive search on major electronic databases, guideline websites, academic society websites, and government websites to assess the methodological quality and clinical applicability of the included CPGs using the Appraisal of Guidelines for Research and Evaluation (AGREE) II tool and Evaluation-Recommendations EXcellence (AGREE-REX) instructions, respectively.Results: The search yielded 61 CPGs, which were mostly published in 2020; moreover, 98.4% of the CPGs were published in China. Only five CPGs achieved a high-quality AGREE II rating; further, six CPGs could be directly recommended, with most of the CPGs still showing much room for improvement. CPGs had a low overall score in the AGREE-REX evaluation, with the domains of clinical applicability, values and preferences, and implementability being standardized in 21.80% ± 12.56%, 16.00% ± 11.81%, and 31.33% ± 14.55% of the CPGs, respectively. Five high-quality CPGs mentioned 56 Chinese herbal formulas. Half of the recommendations had moderate or strong evidence level in the GRADE evaluation. The most frequently recommended herbal medicines were Lianhua Qingwen granule/capsule and Jinhua Qinggan granule; however, the strength of recommendation for each prescription varied across CPGs and populations.Conclusions: The overall quality of current CPGs for COVID-19 for CHM still needs to be improved; moreover, the strength of the evidence remains to be standardized across CPGs.

Background: Atrial fibrillation is a supraventricular tachyarrhythmia with uncoordinated atrial electrical activation and ineffective atrial contraction. Cognitive dysfunction is a syndrome of impaired cognitive function due to abnormalities in brain structure or function, mainly including mild cognitive impairment and dementia. Numerous studies have shown that the two are closely related. In recent years, many advances have been made in this field, but few studies have systematically combed, analyzed and summarized the current research status in this field. This study aimed to analyze existing studies on atrial fibrillation and cognitive dysfunction using bibliometrics. Methods: Relevant articles and reviews on cognitive dysfunction and atrial fibrillation were retrieved from the Web of Science Core Collection. Bibliometric analysis was performed in Excel16.70, VOSviewer 1.6.18, CiteSpace 6.1.6 and R 4.2.1. Results: A total of 1531 articles and reviews from establishing the database to 2023 were included in the bibliometric analysis. The earliest related research appeared in 1985, and the research in this field officially started after 1997 and entered the stage of rapid development in 2012. European and American countries started earlier in this field of research. There is a particular gap among regions, and different countries and institutions must actively strengthen cooperation. The United States had the most significant number of publications. Stroke was the most influential journal, and Lip GYH was the authoritative author in the field. The research focused on the mechanism of atrial fibrillation and cognitive dysfunction, anticoagulation, radiofrequency ablation, and epidemiology. Conclusion: In the past decade, research in this field has entered a stage of rapid development. The United States was clearly leading, and different countries and institutions need to strengthen cooperation actively. The mechanism, methods of diagnosis and treatment, and epidemiology of atrial fibrillation and cognitive dysfunction will remain the focus of research in the future, and early prevention and intervention are of great significance.

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