Quantitative Assessment of Patent Ductus Arteriosus Treatment Research Wang-Huu Hsieh1*, Man-Yau Ho1, Wen-Ta Chiu2, Yee-Shuan Lee3 and Yuh-Shan Ho3# 1Depatment of Pediatrics, Taipei Medical University - Wan-Fang Hospital 2Taipei Medical University - Wan-Fang Hospital 3Bibliometric Centre, Taipei Medical University - Wan-Fang Hospital Introduction The ductus arteriosus connects the main pulmonary arteries and the aortic arch and always closed within 2 days of birth1. If the ductus remains open, then it is called patent ductus arteriosus. PDA occur around 5% to 10% in all congenital heart disease where the male to female ratio is 1 to 32. We categorized treatment of PDA to two groups: drug induction and external assistant. Drug induction insisted of intravenous injection of indomethacin or ibuprofen and external assistant insisted of transcatheter coil occlusion or surgical ligation. Treatments lead to high recovery rate and we are interested in evaluating the publication pattern of treatment related documents and to denote any significant patterns. Methodology Documents were Extracted from Science Citation Index (SCI) Published from 1981 to 2002 Drug induction included keywords: indomethacine or ibuprofen External assistant included keywords: coil or surgical ligation Results Document Type distribution of two treatment categories were very different External assistance documents were published in three other language beside English where drug induction documents just in one other language Document Type External Assistance Drug Induction Article 85.41% 58.7% Editorial Materials 2.58% 10.9% Meeting Abstracts 6.87% 6.5% Note 3.43% 19.6% Reviews 1.72% 4.3% Published 2128 documents related to PDA Low percentage share in either category of treatment Drug induction related documents have increased dramatically from 1998 to 2000 External Assistance Drug Induction Most producing Country USA Italy Most published Journal Catheterization and Cardiovascular Interventions; Catheterization and Cardiovascular Diagnosis Pediatric Research Most Published Language English Most often Authorship 5 International Collaboration 6.4% 21.7% Conclusion Steady yearly publication of external assistance suggest satisfaction with present method or communications were conducted but not indexed by SCI Drug induction total production was very minute compare to PDA and the other Treatment documents production dominated by different countries but both were main-stream countries Indicated English was the most often language used in Science Research Suggested small group collaboration was often International Collaboration was not popular Reference Rudolph AM, Drorbaugh JE, Auld PAM, Rudolph AJ, Nadas AS, Smith CA, Hubbell JP . Studies on the circulation in the neonatal period; The circulation in the respiratory distress syndrome. Pediatrics 1961;27:551-66. Mitchell SC, Korones SB, Berendes HW. Congenital heart disease in 56,109 births incidence and natural history. Circulation 1971;43:323-32.