Increased left-ventricular mass is an important cardiovascular risk factor
for morbidity and mortality. Apart from obvious differences in cardiac size
, the changes in left-ventricular mass in response to age and hypertrophic
stimuli are very different in men and women. Whereas left-ventricular mass
increases with age in apparently healthy women, it remains constant in men.
Under increased cardiac loading conditions, such as hypertension or aortic
stenosis, this disparity between sexes is even more striking. Findings are
especially pronounced in people aged 50 years or older, In whom reproducti
ve hormone concentrations have fallen, Whether the differences in left-vent
ricular mass changes are related to endogenous sex-hormone concentrations h
as never been shown. Androgens have anabolic effects on cardiac cells, and
oestrogens have antiproliferative properties, we therefore postulate that t
he normal decline in endogenous sex hormones with age has contrary effects
on ventricular mass in men and women in normal and pathological states.