Masjedi Shirin, Ferdous Zannatul
Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering, The University of Tennessee, 312 Perkins Hall, Knoxville, TN, 37996, USA.
Cardiovasc Eng Technol. 2015 Sep;6(3):209-19. doi: 10.1007/s13239-015-0226-x. Epub 2015 Apr 25.
Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the major cause of mortality in the elderly population. The cost of CVD treatment and surgeries was over $300 billion in the United States alone in 2010, making this disorder a critical healthcare issue. Many studies have suggested sex as a risk factor for heart valve and major vascular diseases, such as aortic valve stenosis, mitral prolapse and regurgitation, atherosclerosis, coronary artery disease, and abdominal aortic aneurysm. Unfortunately, only a handful of studies have illustrated the role of sex in the etiology and progression of these disorders. Moreover, knowledge of biomolecular factors that affect these diseases in men and women is very limited. Numerous clinical studies have revealed obvious differences in the prevalence of these diseases between the sexes. These reports were supported by a few molecular and cellular physiology studies that associated this difference to sex and sex hormones. In particular, male sex has commonly been identified as a risk factor for majority of heart valve and vascular diseases, whereas females have been identified as higher risk for certain disorders as well. In addition, menopause is a critical issue that turns the tables against women and enhances complications in their cardiovascular structure due to hormonal change. In this review, major vascular and heart valve diseases for which sex is associated as a risk factor have been reviewed to highlight the importance of this risk factor in CVDs.
心血管疾病（CVD）是老年人群死亡的主要原因。仅在2010年，美国用于CVD治疗和手术的费用就超过3000亿美元，这使得这种疾病成为一个关键的医疗保健问题。许多研究表明，性别是心脏瓣膜和主要血管疾病的一个风险因素，如主动脉瓣狭窄、二尖瓣脱垂和反流、动脉粥样硬化、冠状动脉疾病和腹主动脉瘤。不幸的是，只有少数研究阐明了性别在这些疾病的病因和进展中的作用。此外，关于影响男性和女性这些疾病的生物分子因素的知识非常有限。大量临床研究表明，这些疾病的患病率在性别之间存在明显差异。这些报告得到了一些分子和细胞生理学研究的支持，这些研究将这种差异与性别和性激素联系起来。特别是，男性通常被确定为大多数心脏瓣膜和血管疾病的风险因素，而女性也被确定为某些疾病的高风险因素。此外，更年期是一个关键问题，它使情况对女性不利，并由于激素变化而增加了她们心血管结构的并发症。在这篇综述中，对与性别相关的主要血管和心脏瓣膜疾病作为风险因素进行了综述，以强调这一风险因素在心血管疾病中的重要性。
