BackgroundTo identify and characterize the most frequently cited articles that have been published on aortic dissection.MethodsA list of the 100 most frequently cited publications (T100) about aortic dissection was generated by performing a searching of the Science Citation Index--Expanded using “aortic dissection” as the search term. Basic information about the articles was recorded, including number of citations, journal title, journal impact factor, time since publication, first author’s country, topic/subspecialty of the research, and publication type.ResultsWe finally included 180 articles on aortic dissection, from which we identified the 100 most frequently cited articles (T100). The most frequently cited article received 1079 citations, while the least frequently cited article received 68 (mean140.5 citations per article). The T100 originated from 19 countries, with more than half of them originating from the USA (n = 97). The T100 articles were published from 1955 to 2013, with 79% published during the period 1990–2009. In addition, there were 40 different journals with Circulation having the most citations (n = 38). Regarding the article type, there were 21 basic and 140 clinical research articles, one meta-analysis, and 18 review articles. Reviews had the highest mean number of citations (mean 235.5 citations per article).ConclusionsOur study provides a historical perspective on the progress of dissection research, and helps to identify the quality of the work, the discoveries made, and the trends steering the studies.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12872-016-0426-9) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

The present study provides historical perspectives on the progress of PD research and highlights trends and academic achievements in this field.

Obesity and type 2 diabetes (T2D) are on trend to become a huge burden across all ages. They cause harm to almost every organ, especially the heart. For decades, the incidence of heart failure with impaired diastolic function (or called heart failure with preserved ejection fraction, HFpEF) has increased sharply. More and more studies have uncovered obesity and T2D to be closely associated with HFpEF. The sarcoplasmic/endoplasmic reticulum calcium ATPase2a (SERCA2a) microdomain is a key regulator of calcium reuptake into the sarcoplasmic reticulum (SR) during diastole. 3′,5′-cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP) and its downstream effector cAMP dependent protein kinase (PKA) act locally within the SERCA2a microdomain to regulate the phosphorylation state of the small regulatory protein phospholamban (PLN), which forms a complex with SERCA2a. When phosphorylated, PLN promotes calcium reuptake into the SR and diastolic cardiac relaxation by disinhibiting SERCA2a pump function. In this review, we will discuss previous studies investigating the PLN/SERCA2a microdomain in obesity and T2D in order to gain a greater understanding of the underlying mechanisms behind obesity- and T2D-induced diastolic dysfunction, with the aim to identify the current state of knowledge and future work that is needed to guide further research in the field.