Sex-specific differences in cardiac maladaptation to hypertension and arterial stiffening

The overall prevalence of symptomatic heart failure (HF) is similar in men and women and constitutes about a quarter of the first manifestation of cardiovascular disease in both sexes. However, there is an important difference between the sexes in the type of HF. Whereas men more frequently develop HF with reduced ejection fraction, HF with preserved ejection fraction is especially frequent in women. The major risk factors for symptomatic HF are high blood pressure and arterial stiffness, which evoke a complex network of functional and structural changes in the heart in both men and women. In this review, we will discuss the recent epidemiological data on sex discrepancies in cardiac maladaptation to hypertension and arterial stiffening.