title: Gender-associated differences in left ventricular geometry in patients with aortic valve disease and effect of distinct overload subsets.
abstract: Gender-associated differences may play an important role in the way the left ventricle adapts to overload. The purpose of this study is to evaluate left ventricular (LV) geometry in patients referred for aortic valve replacement with distinct overload subsets. The echocardiograms of 128 patients with isolated aortic stenosis (n = 44), mixed aortic valvular disease (n = 51), and pure aortic regurgitation (n = 33) before aortic valve replacement were evaluated. Women had better LV function as measured by ejection fraction (58% vs 52%; p = 0.01) and were slightly older (67 vs 62 years, p = 0.11). LV dimensions and volumes indexes were distinctively smaller in women irrespective of the subgroups analyzed. Men had larger LV mass and LV mass index, but women had higher LV mass/volume ratio. Gender-related differences in LV mass/volume ratio were most prominent in the aortic stenosis patients (3.1 g/ml for women vs 2.3 g/ml for men; p = 0.001), tended to decrease in mixed aortic disease (2.3 g/ml for women vs 1.8 g/ml for men; p = 0.01), and were not present in patients with pure aortic regurgitation (1.7 g/ml for women vs 1.7 g/ml for men; p = 0.83). Multivariate analysis showed that gender was independently associated with LV mass/volume ratios, after adjusting for the severity of the valvular lesion, age, LV function, and concomitant coronary bypass graft surgery. Thus, in a selected population of patients with severe aortic valvular disease, there were significant gender-related differences in LV geometry, mainly in patients exposed to chronic pressure overload.
authors.affiliation: Noninvasive Cardiac Laboratory of the Brigham and Women's Hospital, Department of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA.
authors.forename: L E
authors.initials: LE
authors.lastname: Rohde
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Zhi
authors.forename: S F
authors.initials: SF
authors.lastname: Aranki
authors.forename: N E
authors.initials: NE
authors.lastname: Beckel
authors.forename: R T
authors.initials: RT
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: S C
authors.initials: SC
authors.lastname: Reimold
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D001022:Aortic Valve Insufficiency / Q000150:complications / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D001024:Aortic Valve Stenosis / Q000150:complications / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D017379:Hypertrophy, Left Ventricular / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000209:etiology; D016014:Linear Models; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D012727:Sex Characteristics; D014463:Ultrasonography; D018487:Ventricular Dysfunction, Left / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000209:etiology