Abdul Rehman Arshad, Anwar Kamal Pasha.
Gender differences in coronary risk factors amongst hypertensive patients from Bagh, Azad Kashmir.
Gomal J Med Sci Jan ;11(1):68-72.

Background: With ever-changing lifestyles in the developing countries prevalence of coronary heart disease is on the increase. This study was conducted to determine differences in frequencies of different risk factors between hypertensive male and female patients. Material & Methods: This cross-sectional study enrolled hypertensive patients of either gender older than 30 years. Unwilling patients, those on lipid lowering drugs, those with secondary hypertension and patients not yet started on antihypertensive drugs were excluded. Different risk factors assessed included diabetes, physical inactivity, alcohol consumption, family history of premature coronary heart disease in first degree relatives and smoking. BMI was also calculated. Plasma glucose fasting, serum total cholesterol, serum triglycerides, spot urinary albumin creatinine ratio were measured. Ultrasound abdomen was done to look for non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. Findings were compared between the two genders and odds ratios were calculated for different risk factors. Results: There were 220 patients including 126(57.27%) males and 94(42.73%) females. Predisposing age (96.03% vs 82.98%), smoking (59.52% vs 2.13%) and past history of stroke (7.14% vs 1.06%) were more common in males, whereas obesity (26.98% vs 48.94%), physical inactivity (41.27% vs 70.21%) and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (9.52% vs 27.66%) in females. There was no difference in frequencies of family history (7.94%vs 12.77%), diabetes (20.63% vs 22.34%), hypertriglyceridemia (54.76% vs 60.64%) and microalbuminuria (6.35% vs 2.13%). Conclusion: Smoking is more common in males whereas physical inactivity, obesity and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease are more common in hypertensive females. Risk factor reduction should therefore take gender of the patient into consideration.

PakMediNet -Pakistan's largest Database of Pakistani Medical Journals - http://www.pakmedinet.com