TY  -  JOUR
AU  -  Lazzarini, Elisabetta
AU  -  Rizzo, Stefania
AU  -  Basso, Cristina
AU  -  Pilichou, Kalliopi
AU  -  Thiene, Gaetano
T1  -  Sudden cardiac death in the young: gender differences
PY  -  2020
Y1  -  2020-05-01
DO  -  10.1723/3351.33224
JO  -  The Italian Journal of Gender-Specific Medicine
JA  -  Ital J Gender-Specific Med
VL  -  6
IS  -  2
SP  -  74
EP  -  87
PB  -  Il Pensiero Scientifico Editore
SN  -  2612-3487
Y2  -  2026/06/04
UR  -  http://dx.doi.org/10.1723/3351.33224
N2  -  S ummary. Sudden cardiac death (SCD) is a major cause of death also in women, despite a lower prevalence compared to men. We assessed gender differences in SCD in our case history and considered the main cardiovascular causes of SCD in women. In our experience, one third of the young SCD victims are women and – while atherosclerotic coronary artery disease and arrhythmogenic cardiomyopathy are the leading causes in male SCD victims – SCD in young women is usually associated with non-atherosclerotic causes, like spontaneous coronary dissection and mitral valve prolapse, with a similar prevalence. Myocarditis, structural inherited cardiomyopathies and mors sine materia , with a structurally normal heart, are involved in two thirds of female cases. Most cardiovascular causes of SCD in the young are genetically determined. Despite the incomplete penetrance and the variable expressivity observed in family lineages, the dominant autosomal mechanism of inheritance does not explain the complexity of SCD-associated gender differences, thus emphasizing the growing role of epigenetic and environmental/hormonal mechanisms.
ER  -