Characteristics and Fate of Pediatric Heart Disease Abstracts Presented at National Meetings

Background: This study evaluated the characteristics and publication outcomes of pediatric heart disease abstracts presented in national meetings. Methods: Three years of abstracts (2012 to 2014) were evaluated from 5 national meetings: The Society of Thoracic Surgeons (STS), American Association of Thoracic Surgeons (AATS), American College of Cardiology (ACC), American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), and American Heart Association (AHA). Each abstract was assessed for publication in a peer-reviewed scientific journal, time to publication, impact factor of the journal, and number of citations associated with the publication. Results: A total of 1145 abstracts qualified for inclusion. The majority of the abstracts originated from North America (80.8%) and were single-institution (85.7%), clinical (92.5%), and retrospective (77.9%) studies. A total of 767 (66.9%) abstracts were published in peer-reviewed journals as full-length articles. More than 90% of the abstracts presented at the surgical meetings were published as manuscripts in peer-reviewed journals. In contrast, 68.8% of ACC abstracts, 53.7% AAP abstracts, and 61.4% of AHA abstracts were published as manuscripts in a peer-reviewed journal. The median time to publication was shortest for STS abstracts (10 months) and longest for AHA abstracts (29 months). The median impact factor for published manuscripts varied between 3.0 and 3.5 for AATS abstracts, STS abstracts, ACC abstracts, and AHA abstracts. Manuscripts from AATS abstracts had the highest number of citations. Conclusions: Our data indicate that the national cardiology and cardiac surgery meetings have become a forum for presenting high-quality research, with >90% of the abstracts presented in these meetings culminating in publication.