ReviewJournal of cardiovascular electrophysiology2025
Unravelling Sex Disparities in the Pathophysiology of Atrial Fibrillation: Review of the Current Evidence.
Review in Journal of cardiovascular electrophysiology, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 9 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
9 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Sex-based disparities in postoperative outcomes after catheter ablation for atrial fibrillation: a systematic review and meta-analysis of propensity-matched studies.BMC cardiovascular disorders · 2026Pooled it
- Environmental Exposures and Epigenetic Remodeling in Supraventricular Tachycardias: What Atrial Fibrillation Can and Cannot Tell Us.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- Menopausal Hormone Therapy and Cardiovascular Risk: Current Evidence and Clinical Implications.Medical sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- Head-to-head comparison of non-invasive markers of atrial cardiomyopathy and their association with arrhythmia recurrence after atrial fibrillation ablation.Clinical research in cardiology : official journal of the German Cardiac Society · 2026Article
- Comprehensive Analysis of Atrial Fibrillation/Atrial Flutter Burden in the United States and the European Union: A Comparison and Assessment of Trends and Risk Factors.Journal of cardiovascular development and disease · 2026Article
- Cryptogenic stroke in women: impact of insertable cardiac monitoring in the STROKEWISE cohort study.Europace : European pacing, arrhythmias, and cardiac electrophysiology : journal of the working groups on cardiac pacing, arrhythmias, and cardiac cellular electrophysiology of the European Society of Cardiology · 2026Article
- Heart Failure and Atrial Fibrillation in Women: Pathophysiological Links, Clinical Challenges, and Therapeutic Perspectives.Medicina (Kaunas, Lithuania) · 2026Review
- Pacemaker therapy through a sex-specific lens: a narrative review of clinical and procedural disparities.Frontiers in cardiovascular medicine · 2026Review
- Authors' reply to: 'preventing atrial fibrillation with SGLT2 inhibitors: time, sex, and substrate' by Karakasis et al.European heart journal. Cardiovascular pharmacotherapy · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
12 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most common sustained arrhythmia associated with increased risks of stroke, heart failure, and mortality. Men experience AF more frequently than women, but women are more likely to suffer greater symptoms and reduced quality of life as a consequence of AF onset. Its pathophysiology is complex, influenced by hormonal, structural, electrophysiological, and genetic factors. Sex hormones, including oestrogen, progesterone, and testosterone, play critical roles in modulating cardiac electrophysiology, autonomic function, and atrial remodelling, contributing to sex-specific differences in AF prevalence and outcomes. Women experience increased AF risk post-menopause due to declining oestrogen levels, while testosterone fluctuations in men are associated with arrhythmogenesis. Thyroid hormones further complicate the hormonal landscape by influencing cardiac excitability and autonomic regulation. Electrophysiological and structural differences between sexes, such as longer P-wave durations and greater fibrosis in women, result in increased AF recurrence and complications, particularly after catheter ablation. Men, however, have a higher overall AF incidence, likely due to larger atrial sizes and different conduction properties. Lifestyle and psychological factors, including obesity, physical activity, and mental health, intersect with these sex-specific risks, further influencing AF susceptibility. Artificial intelligence (AI) offers transformative opportunities to integrate these factors into personalised prevention and treatment strategies, enhancing early detection and tailored interventions. This review highlights the critical role of hormonal and sex-specific factors in AF pathophysiology, emphasising the need for sex-specific approaches to optimise management. Understanding these mechanisms is essential for developing targeted, personalised strategies to improve outcomes for men and women with AF.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What Socratic holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.