The production of articles on cardiology from Latin America in Medline indexed journals.

INTRODUCTION Latin America has dramatically increased the number of articles Publisher from 1995 to 2002, but the individual contribution of each country appears to be very unequal. OBJECTIVES To analyze the production of articles on Cardiology research published in Latin American countries in the past years in international journals. METHODS A bibliography search was carried out throughout PubMed in regards to biomedical articles in general and on Cardiology in particular, corresponding to the period 1987-2006. RESULTS A total of 106,871 biomedical articles was identified, and 11,416 on Cardiology published between 1997 and 2006 by Latin American countries. This corresponds to 10.6% of articles on cardiovascular disease over the total. Brazil, Mexico and Argentina contributed with 80% of the publications in Latin America in the same period. The magnitude of growth since 1987 was between 5.9- and 15-fold for these countries. In regards to Brazil, since 1998 a significant increased number of publications was noted compared to Mexico and Argentina (P=0.0001). The impact factor of the journals where each country published during 2006 showed that it was in average higher in the publications from Chile and Argentina compared to Brazil and Mexico (P<0.001). CONCLUSIONS The scientific production in Cardiology from Latin America shows dramatic differences among the countries, and Brazil, Mexico, and Argentina alone provide 80% of the publications. Brazil seems to have led the region for 20 years, especially since 1998. From the quality of the articles point of view, considering the impact factor, Chile and Argentina appear to be better positioned.