Does arrhythmia have a gender?

Does arrhythmia have… gender? – interview with dr. n. med. Ewa Jedrzejczyk-Patej of the Electrophysiology and Cardiac Pacing Laboratory of the Silesian Center for Disease Controlob Heart in Zabrze, Board Member of the Heart Rhythm Section of the Polish Society of Cardiology.

Whether amongod of cardiac arrhythmias are arrhythmias, whichore more common in women than in men?

– Yes, it turns out… arithmetic has a gender! There are some arrhythmias thatore more common in women and such, whichore encountered more often in men. As for supraventricular arrhythmias, it was found that arrhythmias such as atrioventricular nodal tachycardia (AVNRT) are twice as common in women, while complexoł WPW and atrioventricular tachycardia (AVRT) is encountered roalso twice as common, but in men.

What is the cause of rognic?

– Certainly, hormones play a large role: female sex hormones, namely estrogen and progesterone, and male hormones, namely testosterone, ktore determine the risk of postolnych arrhythmias in both sexes. In women, it is often the case that episodes of arrhythmia occur more often during the perimenopausal period, when progesterone dominates estrogen in the cycle. In men, higher levels of testosterone roalso may affect the higher risk of arrhythmia in someorithmogenic heart diseases. Other factors, determining roThe differences in the incidence of roof arrhythmias in women and men, is lifestyle and genetic conditions.

Are roDifferences resulting from the very structure of the heart of women and men?

– Indeed, a woman’s heart is smaller, a man’s is larger and these roanatomical differences are noticeable. In addition, a woman’s heart beats faster by an average of 10 beats per minute. RoThese differences may be due to m.In. z roThe conference is scheduled foroThe main goal of the conference is to discussolymphatic. These systems are responsible, for example, for our reactions to stress. In situations when we are nervous, our heart beats faster. In women and men, these two systems rodiffer slightly among themselves. This is another of the factorsoin, whichory may affect the fact that someore arrhythmias are more common in women and others in men.

Women are more likely to have uncharacteristic symptoms of the diseaseob heart. This is the case, for example, for myocardial infarction and coronary artery disease. In women, myocardial infarction often occurs in the form of atypical boloin the chest. Men have more „typical”, characteristic of myocardial infarction bole. The same is true for arrhythmias. Palpitations are more often complained of by women. Importantly, such symptoms in women are more often underestimated – also by the patients themselves. In women, heart disease, including roThe different arrhythmias are, m.in. For this reason, diagnosed poź than in men.

Do women thus have a worse prognosis?

This is indeed the case. Heart diseases, including arrhythmias in women are diagnosed poForeshortening, and untreated arrhythmias e.g. atrial fibrillationow are associated with a risk of complications. In the case of atrial fibrillationow patient is at risk of stroke mozg, before whichorym protect anticoagulants, which are drugs that reduce the clotting of the patient’s blood. Failure to recognize this arrhythmia is associated with a lack of anticoagulant treatment, and therefore with the risk of stroke, whichory in patients with atrial fibrillationow is associated with much more serious complications than in the case of stroke, associated with other than atrial fibrillationoin the causes.

According to the CHA2DS2 scale–VASc, a special cardiac calculator that estimates the risk of stroke mozgu, one point is already given for female sex. Hence in women the risk of stroke associated with atrial fibrillationow is realistically greater. Moreover, in order to protect the patientoin patients with atrial fibrillationow before stroke we use anticoagulants. Before applying them to a given patient, however, we are obliged to assess the patient’s risk of bleeding. In women this risk is usually higher. Hence, it happens that women are less often prescribed anticoagulants. It’s just that it’s a vicious circle, because if we don’t give a woman an anticoagulant, fearing bleeding, and her risk of stroke is the same or higher than that of a man, the risk of stroke mozgu is very real.

Does roGender differences also exist in the treatment of arrhythmias?

Ogolnie can be said that arrhythmias are treated similarly in women and men. We use the same treatment methods and the same medications zaroboth in women and in men. Still, few studies are devoted to the issue of drug pharmacokineticsoIn both sexes. The point, for example, is that we usually use the same doses of drug in therapyow in women and men, yet women have, among other things, a lower body weight than men and slightly different rates of drug metabolismoin the body. We should explore this topic a bit more. This is an interesting issue – especially in the era of personalized medicine, when treatment is increasingly selected very closely to the needs and individual characteristics of each patient.

It is commonly believed that heart disease is a disease of men. This is a not entirely true view – In women, heart disease is just as common, but diagnosed more often in polater age – In the case of heart attack statistics mobinds with as much as a 10-year shift in peak incidence. This phenomenon is linked to the aforementioned action of hormoneow. It is known that in the premenopausal period women are significantly protected from heart attack and coronary heart disease thanks to female sex hormones. Taking into account in the treatment of cardiovascular diseases, including arrhythmias, the gender of the patient and thus „gender of arrhythmia” is very interesting and relevant to the healing process.