Gender differences in patients with metabolic syndrome in coronary artery interventions.

Aim: We tried to understand whether or not there was a gender difference in coronary artery interventions in coronary heart disease (CHD) cases in the present study.

Methods: The study was performed in two phases. The first phase was performed at the Internal Medicine Polyclinic of the Dumlupinar University between August 2005 and March 2007. CHD was diagnosed either angiographically or with history of coronary artery stenting (CAS) and/or coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) surgery. The second phase was performed at the Internal Medicine Polyclinic of the Mustafa Kemal University between March 2007 and April 2012. During the second phase, the CHD patients with CAS and/or CABG surgery were detected and divided into two groups according to the gender.

Results: Mean age and prevalence of CHD were similar in both genders (p>0.05 for both) in the first phase. Smoking was higher in males with CHD, in 30 cases (54.5%) of males versus six (9.6%) cases of females (p < 0.001), as well as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), in ten (18.1%) cases of males versus four (6.4%) cases of females (p < 0.05). Although the body mass index (BMI) and white coat hypertension (WCH) were insignificantly higher (p>0.05 for both), low density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) and triglyceride (TG) were significantly higher in females with CHD (p= 0.008 and p= 0.002, respectively). Hypertension (HT) and diabetes mellitus (DM) were higher in females with CHD, too (p < 0.001 and p < 0.05, respectively). On the other hand, CAS and/or CABG surgery were significantly higher in male CHD cases (21.8% versus 1.6%, p less 0.001). Parallel to the first phase cases, majority of CAS and/or CABG surgery cases were males in the second phase cases too (90.2% versus 9.7%, p less 0.001).

Conclusion: As some components of the metabolic syndrome, smoking and COPD were higher in males whereas BMI, WCH, LDL-C, TG, HT and DM were higher in females. Despite similar prevalences of CHD in both sexes, CAS and/or CABG surgery were significantly higher in males probably due to fear of loss of power required for their dominant roles in life and sexuality.