Gender significantly impacts the occurrence of cardiovascular events in patients with vascular disease or high risk diabetes, according to a recent study published in Circulation.

 

The study, which used data from both the ONTARGET and TRANSCEND clinical trials, found that females had about 20 percent lower risk for the 4-fold endpoint of cardiovascular death, myocardial infarction (MI), stroke, or admission to a hospital for heart failure (CHF), and a 21 percent lower risk for the 3-fold endpoint of cardiovascular death, MI and stroke. The authors noted that these endpoints were observed, despite treatment with cardioprotective agents. They added that "this was primarily driven by a significantly lower incidence of MI."

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The study also showed that "the adjusted risk for cardiovascular death (17 percent) and for MI (22 percent), but not for stroke and hospitalization for CHF, was also significantly lower in females." However, diabetic females were characterized by a higher risk for acute MI compared to diabetic males.

With 9,378 females and 22,168 males, this was the largest group of cardiovascular high-risk patients in a study thus far.

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