Hipertensión arterial en la mujer en España: análisis de los registros de la Sección de Hipertensión Arterial de la Sociedad Española de Cardiología

This article reports the results of an analysis of the sex differences found in data from clinical and observational studies organized by the Section of Arterial Hypertension of the Spanish Society of Cardiology during the last 10 years in Spain (i.e., the VIIDA, VALYCOR, VALOR, KORAL-CARDIO, CAROL, REFRACVAS, CLYDIA and PAMISCA studies). The data collected covered around 50,000 hypertensive patients, of whom some 45% were female, and included almost all the different forms of hypertension encountered in patients with a wide range of cardiovascular disease. Although the studies analyzed had different objectives and, therefore, different designs, taken together they were very similar, and their results are therefore clinically comparable. Overall analysis indicated that the hypertensive women included in the different studies had a more unfavorable cardiovascular risk profile than men. However, there were a number of sex differences in diagnosis and therapy that could explain, at least in part, why cardiovascular disease has a poorer prognosis in women. Blood pressure control is poor in Spain, in both men and women. As a whole, these findings can provide the basis for devising specific programs or actions aimed at correcting this situation.