A survey of number and type of publications : acquired hypertrichosis

الملخص EN

Objective: To illustrate a new type of survey of biomedi¬cal literature, the number and type of all publications on acquired hypertrichosis, which is chosen as an example for a medical condition, and to discuss the use of this new type of survey for research planning and assessment of lit¬erature.

Design: A survey using the bibliography Index Medicus from 1879 to 1965 and the compact disc read-only memory (Cl)-ROM) version of the database Medline from 1966 to 1995.

Methods: Any publication dealing with acquired hypertrichosis according to title, abstract or index was re¬viewed by counting the total number of publications per year and classifying the article (case report, case report with associated malignancy, research, therapy, review, drug-related and other (editorial, porphyria-related, his¬tory, etc.).

Between 1879 and 1965 no distinction was made be¬tween acquired and congenital hypertrichosis, and after 1965 only publications about acquired hypertrichosis were assessed.

Results: 266 (191)3 to 1965) (n = 58; R: 22- 1; x = 4.6; SD = 3.2) and 362 (1966 to 1995) (n = 30; R: 21- 6; x = 12.1; SD - 4.5) articles were fou nd.

The 362 articles published between 1966 and 1995 were classified as: 87(24%) case reports (R: 8 - 0; x = 2.9; SD - 2.0) 49 (14%) out of which were associated with malig¬nancy (R: 4 - 0; x = 1.6; SD = 1.3), 37 (10%) research (R: 3 - 0; x = 1.2; SD = 1.0), 16 (4%) therapy (R: 3 - 0; x = 0.6; SD = 0.8), 19 (5%) review (1<: 4 - 0; x = 0.6; Sl) = 1.0, 141 (39%) drug-related (R: 13 - 2; x = 4.7; SD = 2.7), 64 (18%) other (R: 6 - 0; x = 2.1; SD = 1.8).

Conclusion: Only 37 (10%) of 362 articles on acquired hypertrichosis were dealing with research findings, while,