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Peer-reviewedCC BY 4.0Frontiers in Cardiovascular Medicine

Sex-related differences in cardiovascular physiology and pathology: insights from cardiac imaging

  • Vasiliki Tasouli-Drakou1
  • Andrea Varias-Menor1
  • Srijit Jana1
  • Ryan Ng1
  • Andrej Petronijevic2
  • Jasmine K. Dugal1
  • Christos Sarantopoulos3
  • Buddhadeb Dawn1
  1. 1Department of Internal Medicine, Kirk Kerkorian School of Medicine at UNLV, Las Vegas, NV, United States
  2. 2Department of Internal Medicine, Valley Health System, Las Vegas, NV, United States
  3. 3Department of Internal Medicine, University of Texas at Tyler, Tyler, TX, United States
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Abstract

Although cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of mortality in women, CVD in women has long been understudied and underdiagnosed. This is largely based on a misconception that hearts in women are similar to those in men with regard to physiological characteristics and physiological responses. Nonetheless, in an era characterized by rapid advances in diagnostic cardiac imaging modalities, there is a greater need to understand sex differences in cardiac anatomy and function, and how these might influence CVD patterns. Such differences include observations that women have greater left ventricular (LV) ejection fraction and more pronounced LV hypertrophy compared with men using echocardiography and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) respectively. Imaging can help reveal microvascular dysfunction and heart failure, both of which have different characteristics in women compared with men. This review aims to provide a brief summary of the sex differences in cardiovascular pathophysiology among men and women observed across various imaging modalities, including echocardiography, MRI, coronary computed tomography angiography, positron emission tomography, and stress testing, while also referencing sex differences in electrophysiology with respect to cardiac anatomy.

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Cite

BibTeXRIS
BibTeX
@article{tasoulidrakou2026sexrelated,
  title = {{Sex-related differences in cardiovascular physiology and pathology: insights from cardiac imaging}},
  author = {Vasiliki Tasouli-Drakou and Andrea Varias-Menor and Srijit Jana and Ryan Ng and Andrej Petronijevic and Jasmine K. Dugal and Christos Sarantopoulos and Buddhadeb Dawn},
  journal = {Frontiers in Cardiovascular Medicine},
  year = {2026},
  month = oct,
  doi = {10.3389/fcvm.2026.1931498},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.3389/fcvm.2026.1931498},
  note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY  - JOUR
TI  - Sex-related differences in cardiovascular physiology and pathology: insights from cardiac imaging
AU  - Vasiliki Tasouli-Drakou
AU  - Andrea Varias-Menor
AU  - Srijit Jana
AU  - Ryan Ng
AU  - Andrej Petronijevic
AU  - Jasmine K. Dugal
AU  - Christos Sarantopoulos
AU  - Buddhadeb Dawn
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/10/12
JO  - Frontiers in Cardiovascular Medicine
DO  - 10.3389/fcvm.2026.1931498
UR  - https://doi.org/10.3389/fcvm.2026.1931498
AB  - Although cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of mortality in women, CVD in women has long been understudied and underdiagnosed. This is largely based on a misconception that hearts in women are similar to those in men with regard to physiological characteristics and physiological responses. Nonetheless, in an era characterized by rapid advances in diagnostic cardiac imaging modalities, there is a greater need to understand sex differences in cardiac anatomy and function, and how these might influence CVD patterns. Such differences include observations that women have greater left ventricular (LV) ejection fraction and more pronounced LV hypertrophy compared with men using echocardiography and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) respectively. Imaging can help reveal microvascular dysfunction and heart failure, both of which have different characteristics in women compared with men. This review aims to provide a brief summary of the sex differences in cardiovascular pathophysiology among men and women observed across various imaging modalities, including echocardiography, MRI, coronary computed tomography angiography, positron emission tomography, and stress testing, while also referencing sex differences in electrophysiology with respect to cardiac anatomy.
SN  - 2297-055X
ER  -