Relation Between Gender, Etiology and Survival in Patients With Symptomatic Heart Failure

Objectives This study investigated the relation between gender, etiology and survival in patients with symptomatic heart failure. Background Previous work provides conflicting results concerning the relation between gender, clinical characteristics and survival in patients with heart failure. Methods We examined the relation of these factors in 557 patients (380 men, 177 women) who had symptomatic heart failure, predominantly nonischemic in origin (68%) and typically associated with severe left ventricular dysfunction. Results Follow-up data were available in 99% of patients (mean follow-up period 2.4 years, range 1 day to 10 years) after study entry, and 201 patients reached the primary study end point of all-cause mortality. By life-table analysis, women were significantly less likely to reach this primary end point than men (p Conclusions Women with heart failure due to nonischemic causes had significantly better survival than men with or without coronary disease as their primary cause of heart failure.