Sex differences in clinical characteristics, management, and outcomes in patients admitted for ventricular tachycardia: 2016-2018.

Introduction: The concurrent data on sex disparities in VT management and outcomes have remained unclear. Therefore, our objective was to determine the impact of sex on ventricular tachycardia (VT) management and outcomes in patients admitted with VT, dervied from the US National Inpatient Sample database (NIS).

Methods: We used data from the US NIS to identify hospitalized adult patients who were admitted with VT between 2016 and 2018. Regression analysis was conducted to evaluate the impact of sex on VT management, in-hospital mortality, complications, length of stay, and hospitalization costs.

Results: Of the database, a total of 146 070 patients, who were primarily hospitalized for VT, were approximated. Among these, women comprised 25.5%; they were significantly younger and had fewer comorbidities. Of procedural aspects, women were less likely to receive an angiogram, mechanical support, implantable cardioverter-defibrillator implantation, and VT ablation compared to men. Notably, women were associated with higher do-not-resuscitate rates and in-hospital cardiac arrests than men. No differences in in-hospital mortality and cardiogenic shock were observed between men and women (p > .05). Length of stay was significantly longer for women, while no differences in hospital costs were observed in both sexes.

Conclusion: Significant sex disparities in management and outcomes were observed in admitted patients with VT. Our results reflect the need for further studies to explore factors causing such diversities.