Global research trends of lean metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (lean MASLD) from 2005 to 2024: Bibliometric and visualization analysis

BACKGROUND: To analyze the research status, hotspots, and frontiers of lean metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (lean MASLD) in the past 20 years using bibliometrics, providing references for further related research. METHODS: Literature on lean MASLD was retrieved from the Web of Science Core Collection database. Visual analyses of publication trends, author distribution, research institutions, journal distribution, cited documents, and keywords, were performed using VOSviewer, the "Bibliographic" package in R, and CiteSpace software. RESULTS: A total of 2008 documents were included. The publication output on lean MASLD increased annually and peaked in 2023. This literature originated from 82 countries/regions, with the United States contributing the most publications. Harvard University was the institution with the highest publication count, PLOS ONE was the top journal in this field, and Prof Wong, Vincent Wai-Sun from The Chinese University of Hong Kong was the most productive author. The research on lean MASLD at that time primarily focused on etiology and treatment (e.g., hepatic steatosis, insulin resistance, metabolic syndrome, oxidative stress, inflammation, abdominal obesity, sarcopenia, patatin-like phospholipase domain-containing 3 gene, and gut microbiota), as well as epidemiology and diagnostic methods. CONCLUSION: This study systematically depicted the 2-decade developmental trajectory of lean MASLD using bibliometric methods for the first time, and provides academic references for clinicians and scholars to grasp the field's hotspots, frontiers, and evolutionary trends.