The drug treatment of heart failure is influenced by the gender of the patient and of the physician

While the treatment of heart failure has improved over the past two decades, a new study reported in the European Journal of Heart Failure finds that "the use of evidence-based treatments appears to be imbalanced according to the gender of the patient".

In particular, the study found

• that female patients were less frequently treated with guideline-recommended medications (such as angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors, angiotensin receptor blockers ARBs) or beta-blockers)
• and that doses were lower in female than in male patients.

However, the patient's gender was not the only influence on treatment; so was the gender of the physician. For example, the study demonstrated for the first time that drug treatment is more complete when female physicians are taking care of the patient. Thus, the use of ACE inhibitors or ARBs was significantly lower in female patients treated by a male physician than in male patients treated by either a female or male physician.