Outcome of women versus men with ventricular tachyarrhythmias treated with the implantable cardioverter defibrillator.

Introduction: Important sex differences in the incidence and outcome of patients with ischemic heart disease, the leading cause of ventricular tachyarrhythmias, have been identified. Implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) therapy has become the treatment of choice for patients with ventricular tachycardia (VT) and ventricular fibrillation (VF), but little is known about gender differences in the outcome of ICD-treated patients.

Methods And Results: In this retrospective study, we compared arrhythmic events and survival of 376 women and 1,654 men treated with an ICD as part of prospective evaluations of transvenous devices or lead systems.