Cardiovascular medicine reviewed for biological sex and gender differences
- Sex and gender effects on cardiovascular disease manifestation and outcomes are discussed in a scientific review published in Nature Reviews Cardiology.
- Historically, clinical trials supporting Food and Drug Administration approval of cardiovascular drugs heavily underrepresented women, as demonstrated in a 2018 study by P.
- Gebhard outlined in Nature Reviews Cardiology how sex and gender affect cardiovascular disease manifestation and outcomes.
Sex and gender effects on cardiovascular disease manifestation and outcomes are discussed in a scientific review published in Nature Reviews Cardiology. Researchers note that biological sex and gender differences heavily influence how heart conditions develop, present symptoms, and respond to treatments.
Historical Gaps in Clinical Trials
Historically, clinical trials supporting Food and Drug Administration approval of cardiovascular drugs heavily underrepresented women, as demonstrated in a 2018 study by P. E. Scott and colleagues published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology. Subsequent analyses, including a 2024 review by A. E. Spiering and colleagues in the International Journal of Cardiology, confirm that female underrepresentation persists across cardiovascular disease clinical trials. This historical data gap limits sex-stratified evidence for common treatments. For instance, L. Khan, M. Khan, and N. Rzayev emphasized in a 2025 European Journal of Preventive Cardiology publication the urgent need to reassess colchicine efficacy specifically for women using sex-stratified data.
Symptom Presentation and Diagnostic Challenges
Biological sex heavily influences disease manifestation. V. Regitz-Zagrosek and C. Gebhard outlined in Nature Reviews Cardiology how sex and gender affect cardiovascular disease manifestation and outcomes. A systematic review and meta-analysis led by R. E. M. van Oosterhout in the Journal of the American Heart Association detailed sex differences in symptom presentation during acute coronary syndromes. Diagnostic thresholds often fail to account for these physiological variations. Studies by K. K. Lee and colleagues in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology alongside systematic reviews by D. M. Kimenai and colleagues in Clinical Chemistry evaluated sex-specific clinical decision limits for cardiac troponin. Additional research by M. Cao and L. Liu in Clinical Therapeutics and Clinical Chemistry examined sex-specific high-sensitivity cardiac troponin thresholds and absolute delta thresholds to improve diagnostic accuracy for acute myocardial infarction.