Heart failure less harmful to women

Women with heart failure of nonischemic origin have significantly better survival than men, according to researchers at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill. In a study of 380 men and 177 women with symptomatic heart failure that was predominantly ischemic in origin and typically associated with left ventricular dysfunction, women were far less likely to die than men. The researchers speculate that the results of the study may indicate there are gender differences in the etiologies of heart failure but that further studies are necessary.