Burden of cardiovascular disease in women: data from Pakistan’s largest cardiac hospital network

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is understudied, underdiagnosed, and undertreated in women due to a lack of knowledge and understanding, particularly in the context of low-middle incomes countries (LMICs). Over a 20-month period from October 2022 to June 2024, we included 2003 patients from our valve registry, 11,894 patients from the Cath-PCI registry, and 542 patients from the structural intervention registry in Pakistan’s largest tertiary-care cardiac hospital. We discovered that females are more likely than males to suffer from valvular heart disease (VHD) and present at a considerably younger age. Females had a higher likelihood of mitral valve disease than males, who were more likely to have aortic valve disease. Rheumatic heart disease was the leading cause of all left-sided VHD. Amongst the acute coronary syndrome cohort, females had a significantly higher prevalence of diabetes and hypertension and significantly higher rate of death, longer door to balloon time and total ischemic time.