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Contribution of Arab Countries to Familial Mediterranean Fever Research: a PubMed-based bibliometric analysis

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Abstract

Familial Mediterranean Fever (FMF) is an inherited autoinflammatory disease. One of the feared complications of FMF, amyloidosis is often correlated with an increased mortality rate. The severity of the disease is linked with different mutations in the MEFV gene that may favor different outcomes (amyloidosis, Bechet’s disease…). Although several countries worldwide contribute remarkably to research related to FMF, Arab countries make up only a small part of this contribution. This study aims to estimate numerically the contribution of the Arab world to research conducted on FMF. PubMed is used to quantitate the number of FMF-related articles published by each Arab country from 2004 till 2019. The retrieved numbers are normalized with respect to each country’s average population and average Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and are also compared to those of some non-Arab countries having high FMF prevalence. In comparison with some non-Arab countries, the Arab world has a minor contribution of 3.80% to the total FMF-related publications, faced by 24.93% solely by Turkey. Out of total research done by Arab countries, FMF-related articles constitute no more than 0.133%. When normalized against the average population, Tunisia ranks first, followed by Lebanon. Similarly, normalizing the retrieved numbers of articles against average GDP shows that Tunisia and Lebanon come first and second, respectively. Only 8 Arab countries published a total of 13 articles concerning amyloidosis which makes 4.7% of the total Arabic FMF published articles. This study reflects an undoubtable need for more research to be conducted on FMF by the Arab countries, which suffer greatly from immense shortage in research productivity, due to the many obstacles and limitations these countries face every day.

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Abbreviations

AA-amyloidosis:

Amyloid A protein amyloidosis

FMF:

Familial Mediterranean Fever

GDP:

Gross domestic product

MEFV:

Mediterranean fever gene

MeSH:

Medical subject heading

UAE:

United Arab Emirates

USA:

United States of America

WPP:

World prospect population

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Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to faculty members in the Lebanese University, especially Miss Lara Saoudi, for assisting in language correction.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Arts and Sciences, University of Balamand, Nord, Lebanon

    Diala El Masri

  2. Faculty of Medical Sciences, Lebanese University, Hadath Campus, Beirut, Lebanon

    Bachar Alsaayed, Jad El Masri, Bachir Zreika, Hani Chanbour & Pascale Salameh

  3. Faculty of Medical Sciences, Neuroscience Research Center, Lebanese University, Beirut, Lebanon

    Jad El Masri

  4. Faculty of Pharmacy, Lebanese University, Beirut, Lebanon

    Pascale Salameh

  5. iNSPECT-LB (Intitut National de Santé Publique, Epidémiologie Clinique et Toxicologie-Liban), Beirut, Lebanon

    Pascale Salameh

  6. Medical School, University of Nicosia, Nicosia, Cyprus

    Pascale Salameh

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  1. Diala El Masri
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Contributions

JEM, DEM, PS: conception or design of the work; DEM, JEM: data acquisition; JEM, BA: analysis; BA, BZ, HC: interpretation of data for the work. All authors drafted the work or revised it critically for important intellectual content. All authors gave final approval of the version to be published. All authors had an agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved. All authors take full responsibility for the integrity of the study and the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Jad El Masri.

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Masri, D.E., Alsaayed, B., Masri, J.E. et al. Contribution of Arab Countries to Familial Mediterranean Fever Research: a PubMed-based bibliometric analysis. Rheumatol Int 42, 95–100 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00296-021-04852-0

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