Title:The Application of Artificial Intelligence in Thyroid Nodules: A Systematic
Review Based on Bibliometric Analysis
Volume: 24
Issue: 11
Author(s): Yun Peng, Tong-Tong Wang, Jing-Zhi Wang, Heng Wang, Ruo-Yun Fan, Liang-Geng Gong and Wu-Gen Li*
Affiliation:
- Department of Radiology, The Second Affiliated Hospital, Jiangxi Medical College, Nanchang University Nanchang,
330006, China
Keywords:
Bibliometrics, thyroid nodule, artificial intelligence, radiomics, lymph node metastasis, risk factor.
Abstract:
Background: Thyroid nodules are common lesions in benign and malignant thyroid
diseases. More and more studies have been conducted on the feasibility of artificial intelligence
(AI) in the detection, diagnosis, and evaluation of thyroid nodules. The aim of this study was to
use bibliometric methods to analyze and predict the hot spots and frontiers of AI in thyroid nodules.
Methods: Articles on the application of artificial intelligence in thyroid nodules were retrieved
from the Web of Science core collection database. A website (https://bibliometric.com/),
VOSviewer and CiteSpace software were used for bibliometric analyses. The collaboration
maps of countries and institutions were analyzed. The cluster and timeline view based on cocitation
references and keywords citation bursts visualization map were generated.
Results: The study included 601 papers about AI in thyroid nodules. China contributed to more
than half (52.41%) of these publications. The cluster view and timeline view of co-citation references
were assembled into 9 clusters, “AI”, “deep learning”, “papillary thyroid carcinoma”,
“radiomics”, “ultrasound image”, “biomarkers”, “medical image segmentation”, “central lymph
node metastasis (CLNM)”, and “self-organizing auto-encoder”. The “AI”, “radiomics”, “medical
image segmentation”, “deep learning”, and “CLNM”, emerging in the last 10 years and
continuing until recent years.
Conclusion: An increasing number of scholars were devoted to this field. The potential future
research hotspots include risk factor assessment and CLNM prediction of thyroid carcinoma
based on radiomics and deep learning, automatic segmentation based on medical images (especially
ultrasound images).