Aortic Dissection Research in China: Analysis of Studies Funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China

Objective The National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) has made great progress in promoting the development of aortic dissection research in recent years. This study aimed to examine the development and research status of aortic dissection research in China so as to provide references for future research. Methods The NSFC projects data from 2008 to 2019 were collected from the Internet-based Science Information System and other websites utilized as search engines. The publications and citations were retrieved by Google Scholar, and the impact factors were checked by the InCite Journal Citation Reports database. The investigator’s degree and department were identified from the institutional faculty profiles. Results A total of 250 grant funds totaling 124.3 million Yuan and resulting in 747 publications were analyzed. The funds in economically developed and densely populated areas were more than those in underdeveloped and sparsely populated areas. There was no significant difference in the amount of funding per grant between different departments’ investigators. However, the funding output ratios of the grants for cardiologists were higher than those for basic science investigators. The amount of funding for clinical researchers and basic scientific researchers in aortic dissection was also similar. Clinical researchers were better in terms of the funding output ratio. Conclusion These results suggest that the medical and scientific research level of aortic dissection in China has been greatly improved. However, there are still some problems that urgently need to be solved, such as the unreasonable regional allocation of medical and scientific research resources, and the slow transition from basic science to clinical practice.