Bibliometric analysis of research on sarcopenia in rheumatoid arthritis: 1997–2025

This bibliometric study analyzed research on sarcopenia (muscle loss) in rheumatoid arthritis from 1997 to the end of 2025. Researchers examined 433 documents from Web of Science and Scopus databases. Publication numbers increased slowly until 2007, steadily until 2015, and exponentially from 2016 onwards, with 61 articles published in 2025 alone. The United States led in productivity with 67 publications and 5,915 citations, followed by China (63 publications) and Japan (58 publications). Research evolved from descriptive body composition studies (1996–2005) through investigation of inflammatory mechanisms (2006–2014) to epidemiological characterization and non-pharmacological interventions (2015–2020), and finally to diagnostic validation and precision medicine (2021–2025). Future research directions include multi-omics approaches, machine learning-based risk prediction, and targeted biologic therapies.