Gabriela Kaliská
Women compared with men have higher heart frequency, faster atrioventricular conduction, narrower QRS complex and longer QT interval. These differences are mainly due to different electrophysiological characteristics of the conductive system of the heart and sexual hormones activity. There is a higher prevalence of atrioventricular nodal reentrant tachycardia in women. Atrial fibrillation is rarer, however, the clinical course is more severe (paroxysms are more frequent, worse respond to therapy, higher mortality and cerebrovascular episodes, rarer non-pharmacological therapy), inherited long QT syndrome is more frequent. More severe, clinically and prognostically, is the tendency to prolong the QT interval and development of severe ventricular arrhythmias (polymorphic ventricular tachycardia of the torsade de pointes type and ventricular fibrillation) after substances with higher proarrhythmic risk. Risk of sudden cardial death is lower compared with men, however, the identification of risk persons and primary prevention of a sudden death is problematic.