Introduction and objectives: There is some controversy about the impact of sex on mortality in patients with heart failure. Moreover, little is known about its influence on prognosis in patients with preserved systolic function. The objective of this study was to investigate the influence of sex on survival in patients with heart failure, including subgroups with preserved or depressed left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF).
Patients and method: The study included 1252 patients (767 male, 61.3%) who were admitted with heart failure to the cardiology department of a tertiary hospital. The median follow-up period was 2.3 years, with the mortality rate rising to 41% after 12 years of follow-up. A LVEF less than 50% was observed in 60.2% of patients. Female patients were older (73.4 +/- 10.0 years vs 66.8 +/- 11.9 years; P < .001), a higher proportion had preserved systolic function (52.2% vs 31.9%; P < .001), and fewer had ischemic cardiopathy (44.1% vs 53.2%; P < .001).
Results: In the group as a whole, the influence of sex on prognosis did not reach statistical significance: the hazard ratio in males compared with females was 1.253 (95%CI, 0.978-1.605; P = .074). In addition, no influence of sex on survival was observed in subgroups with preserved or depressed systolic function.
Conclusions: In a large cohort, we did not observe any influence of sex on mortality in hospitalized patients with heart failure, either in the group as a whole or in subgroups with preserved or depressed left ventricular systolic function, despite a tendency towards higher mortality in males.