Thematic Evolution and Diversification of Bullous Pemphigoid Research: A Bibliometric Analysis, 1959-2025.

Authors

Ming-Chi Lu, Meng-Chi Chiu, Malcolm Koo

Published in

Clinical, cosmetic and investigational dermatology. Volume 19. Pages 622840. Epub Sep 02, 2026.

Abstract

Bullous pemphigoid research spans autoantigen and basement membrane biology, diagnosis, comorbidity, inflammatory pathways, and treatment, but its long-term conceptual development has not been mapped.
English-language articles and reviews indexed in the Science Citation Index Expanded through December 31, 2025, were retrieved from title, author-keyword, and abstract fields. Records underwent AI-assisted first-pass screening followed by human review. Bibliometrix and VOSviewer were used for parameter-tested author-keyword clustering and a full-corpus title-term sensitivity analysis.
Of 3,471 screened records, 2,121 were eligible. Annual output accelerated after 2015 and exceeded 100 publications in 2022, 2023, and 2025. Author keywords were available for 55.1% of publications. The selected network contained 112 keywords, 889 links, and eight clusters. Among 924 keyword-mappable publications, autoantigens, autoantibodies, and basement membrane zone biology declined from 51.9% in 1959-1998 to 14.6% in 2021-2025. Therapeutic management and clinical outcomes increased from 7.7% to 37.8%, epidemiology and comorbidities from 1.9% to 20.8%, dipeptidyl peptidase-4 inhibitor-associated bullous pemphigoid from 0% to 12.7%, and immune checkpoint inhibitor-associated bullous pemphigoid from 0% to 10.8%. Diagnosis and related autoimmune blistering diseases peaked at 50.0% in 1999-2013 before declining to 24.3%. Inflammatory and immune effector mechanisms showed no statistically significant period variation after multiplicity adjustment. The title-term analysis recovered the major domains.
Bullous pemphigoid research diversified from structural, immunological, and diagnostic foundations toward treatment, clinical outcomes, comorbidity, and medication-associated disease. Although author-keyword availability was incomplete and varied substantially over time, the findings provide a longitudinal map of the field, with temporal estimates reflecting relative prominence within keyword-mappable publications.

PMID:
42703528
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 07 Sep 2026.

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