Valvular Heart Disease in Women Registry

Overview

Valvular heart disease (VHD) is a major global health issue. Untreated rheumatic heart disease persists in many regions, preventable with timely care. Higher-income countries face rising calcific valve disease from aging, worsened by VHD complications, like infective endocarditis, resulting in higher morbidity/mortality. Gender disparities in VHD remains understudied, despite inequalities in risks, diagnosis, and treatment. Prevalence varies by gender, but uneven diagnostics and therapies obscure realities. This registry will examine gender disparities from hospital admission to first outpatient follow-up, recruiting both men and women to investigate and report the study objectives.

Valvular heart disease (VHD) is a major global public health problem (1). Many regions of the world continue to grapple with the adverse consequences of untreated rheumatic heart disease, a condition that is largely preventable with timely access to diagnosis and treatment (2, 3). In turn, middle- and high-income countries have experienced a rise in the prevalence of calcific aortic and mitral disease, owing in part to population ageing (3). This public health problem is further compounded by high rates of infective endocarditis, which is associated with substantial morbidity and mortality. Yet, considerations of gender disparities have not taken centre stage in VHD research. This is despite evidence of major healthcare disparities in socioeconomic and medical risk factors, access to diagnosis, and provision of appropriate treatment (4-7). The prevalence of VHD varies by gender, but diagnostic evaluations are not equitable across the groups, which makes the true prevalence less clear. The delivery of evidence-based treatments for VHD is not equitable (8). The aim of this registry will be to examine gender differences in VHD from the time point of admission to the hospital (either elective or urgent admission) up to the first follow-up in an outpatient clinic. We will recruit both men and women in order to analyse the gender disparities.

Conditions