Should there be sex-specific criteria for the diagnosis and treatment of heart failure?

Lawrence E. Greiten, Sara J. Holditch, Shivaram Poigai Arunachalam, Virginia M. Miller

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

28 Scopus citations

Abstract

All-cause mortality from cardiovascular disease is declining in the USA. However, there remains a significant difference in risk factors for disease and in mortality between men and women. For example, prevalence and outcomes for heart failure with preserved ejection fraction differ between men and women. The reasons for these differences are multifactorial, but reflect, in part, an incomplete understanding of sex differences in the etiology of cardiovascular diseases and a failure to account for sex differences in pre-clinical studies including those designed to develop new diagnostic and treatment modalities. This review focuses on the underlying physiology of these sex differences and provides evidence that inclusion of female animals in pre-clinical studies of heart failure and in development of imaging modalities to assess cardiac function might provide new information from which one could develop sex-specific diagnostic criteria and approaches to treatment.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)139-155
Number of pages17
JournalJournal of cardiovascular translational research
Volume7
Issue number2
DOIs
StatePublished - Mar 2014

Keywords

  • Diastolic dysfunction
  • Heart failure with preserved ejection fraction
  • MRI
  • Magnetic resonance imaging

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Molecular Medicine
  • Genetics
  • Pharmaceutical Science
  • Cardiology and Cardiovascular Medicine
  • Genetics(clinical)

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