Gender in cardiovascular diseases: impact on clinical manifestations, management, and outcomes

In the vast majority of cardiovascular diseases (CVDs), there are well-described differences between women and men in epidemiology, pathophysiology, clinical manifestations, effects of therapy, and outcomes.1–3 These differences arise on one hand from biological differences among women and men, which are called sex differences. They are due to differences in gene expression from the sex chromosomes and subsequent differences in sexual hormones leading to differences in gene expression and function in the CV system, e.g. in vascular function and NO signalling, in myocardial remodelling under stress, or metabolism of drugs by sex-specific cytochrome expression. Sex differences are frequently reproducible…

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  National Institutes of Health