Clinical characteristics and echocardiographic features of black men vs. black women with systolic heart failure

Abstract

Purpose: We sought to determine whether significant differences exist in clinical characteristics and echocardiographic features between black men and black women who presented to an outpatient heart failure clinic.

Methods: A retrospective review of the charts of 114 consecutive patients with systolic dysfunction who presented to a heart failure clinic in Brooklyn from 1999--2003 was performed. The first echocardiogram within six months of presentation to the clinic was used for analysis. The clinical characteristics included are: age, sex, body mass index (BMI) and diabetes status. A significance level of <0.05 was used throughout.

Summary: Based on the analysis of 108 black men and women, overall, men have a significantly larger left ventricular end-diastolic diameter (LVEDD) compared to women (p<0.006). Younger men (7.17 cm) had a larger LVEDD compared to older men (6.37 cm) and both younger and older women (6.22 cm and 6.40 cm, respectively). This difference in LVEDD between the sexes decreased with aging. Men (22.17) had a lower ejection fraction (EF) than women (25.37). No significant differences were noted in the BMI (30.45 for men and 28.60 for women) and the albumin level (3.59 for men and 3.44 for women) between the sexes. However, the younger age group (particularly younger men) had a higher BMI than the older age group (p=0.008).