Cardiomyopathies in Women

TL;DR

This review highlights how heart failure affects women differently, with unique challenges and underrepresentation in clinical research.

Contribution

The paper emphasizes sex-specific differences in heart failure and proposes solutions for equitable care.

Findings

Women have higher hospitalization rates and worse quality of life despite better survival in heart failure.

Anatomical differences in women's hearts impact systolic and diastolic function.

Women are underrepresented in clinical trials, leading to biased data and treatment outcomes.

Abstract

Heart failure affects over 2.6 million people in the United States. While women have better overall survival rates, they also suffer from higher morbidity as shown by higher rates of hospitalization and worse quality of life. Several anatomical differences in women’s hearts affect both systolic and diastolic cardiac physiology. Despite these findings, women are significantly underrepresented in clinical trials, necessitating extrapolation of data from males. Because women have sex-specific etiologies of heart failure and unique manifestations in genetic-related cardiomyopathies, meaningful sex-related differences affect heart failure outcomes as well as access to and outcomes in advanced heart failure therapies in women. This review explores these gender-specific differences and potential solutions to balance care between women and men.

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