Resumen

SALDARRIAGA, Clara; GONZALEZ, Nathalia  y  AVILA, Alejandra. Gender differences in the treatment of heart failure. Rev. Colomb. Cardiol. [online]. 2014, vol.21, n.1, pp.27-32. ISSN 0120-5633.

INTRODUCTION: heart failure is a growing health problem with a high prevalence in females; however, there are no studies reporting if there are gender differences in both the clinical presentation and treatment of this pathology in Latin-American women. OBJECTIVE: to assess whether there are differences in both clinical and epidemiological characteristics and pharmacological management in terms of gender, in a series of patients with heart failure treated at a cardiovascular referral center in Colombia. METHODS: observational descriptive study, which evaluated all patients hospitalized for heart failure syndrome as the primary diagnosis between July 2009 and July 2010 in a Colombian cardiovascular referral center. RESULTS: 204 patients were included, 36.7% were females. Mean age was higher in women; the mean ejection fraction was similar in both groups. Women had more frequently renal failure. Lower use of beta blockers, as well as of cardiac defibrillator implant was found in women. CONCLUSION: in this study population we found that there are gender differences in both demographic and clinical variables. Despite presenting more comorbidities, women with heart failure less frequently receive the therapies that have shown to reduce mortality such as beta blockers and implantable cardioverter defibrillator. It is necessary to expand our knowledge of gender differences through the creation of a Latin American multicenter registry that effectively enable to influence the clinical decision making proper for the region.

Palabras clave : cardiac failure; woman; epidemiology.

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