In brief , female atrial fibrillation patients more commonly present comorbidities , leading to a higher prevalence of persistent atrial fibrillation ; moreover , they refer to hospital care later and with a longer disease history .
Atrial fibrillation symptoms relate to low quality of life in female patients ; in fact , atrial fibrillation paroxysm usually presents higher heart rate , leading to preferentially adopt a rate rather than a rhythm-control strategy .
Female atrial fibrillation patients present an increased risk of stroke , worsened by the lower  oral anticoagulant prescription rate related to the concomitant higher haemorrhagic risk profile .
Trans-catheter ablation is under-used in female patients and , on the contrary , they are more commonly affected by anti-arrhythmic drug side effects
Atrial fibrillation is the most common supraventricular arrhythmia .
Its prevalence increases with age and preferentially affects male patients .
Over 75 years of age , however , female patients being more prevalent , the absolute number of patients affected is similar between sexes .
Despite this , few data are available in the literature concerning sex-related differences in atrial fibrillation patients .
The present systematic review therefore considers comorbidities , referring symptoms , quality of life , pharmacological approaches  and  trans-catheter ablation  in female rather than in male atrial fibrillation patients in search of parameters that may have an impact on the treatment outcome .
Dabigatran versus warfarin in patients with atrial fibrillation.
BACKGROUND Warfarin reduces the risk of stroke in patients with atrial fibrillation but increases the risk of hemorrhage and is difficult to use . Dabigatran is a new oral direct thrombin inhibitor . METHODS In this noninferiority trial , we r and omly assigned 18,113 patients who had atrial fibrillation and a risk of stroke to receive , in a blinded fashion , fixed doses of dabigatran--110 mg or 150 mg twice daily -- or , in an unblinded fashion , adjusted-dose warfarin . The median duration of the follow-up period was 2.0 years . The primary outcome was stroke or systemic embolism . RESULTS Rates of the primary outcome were 1.69 % per year in the warfarin group , as compared with 1.53 % per year in the group that received 110 mg of dabigatran ( relative risk with dabigatran , 0.91 ; 95 % confidence interval [ CI ] , 0.74 to 1.11 ; P<0.001 for noninferiority ) and 1.11 % per year in the group that received 150 mg of dabigatran ( relative risk , 0.66 ; 95 % CI , 0.53 to 0.82 ; P<0.001 for superiority ) . The rate of major bleeding was 3.36 % per year in the warfarin group , as compared with 2.71 % per year in the group receiving 110 mg of dabigatran ( P=0.003 ) and 3.11 % per year in the group receiving 150 mg of dabigatran ( P=0.31 ) . The rate of hemorrhagic stroke was 0.38 % per year in the warfarin group , as compared with 0.12 % per year with 110 mg of dabigatran ( P<0.001 ) and 0.10 % per year with 150 mg of dabigatran ( P<0.001 ) . The mortality rate was 4.13 % per year in the warfarin group , as compared with 3.75 % per year with 110 mg of dabigatran ( P=0.13 ) and 3.64 % per year with 150 mg of dabigatran ( P=0.051 ) . CONCLUSIONS In patients with atrial fibrillation , dabigatran given at a dose of 110 mg was associated with rates of stroke and systemic embolism that were similar to those associated with warfarin , as well as lower rates of major hemorrhage .  Dabigatran administered at a dose of 150 mg , as compared with warfarin , was associated with lower rates of stroke and systemic embolism but similar rates of major hemorrhage . ( Clinical Trials.gov number , NCT00262600 .
In brief , female atrial fibrillation patients more commonly present comorbidities , leading to a higher prevalence of persistent atrial fibrillation ; moreover , they refer to hospital care later and with a longer disease history .
Atrial fibrillation symptoms relate to low quality of life in female patients ; in fact , atrial fibrillation paroxysm usually presents higher heart rate , leading to preferentially adopt a rate rather than a rhythm-control strategy .
Female atrial fibrillation patients present an increased risk of stroke , worsened by the lower  oral anticoagulant prescription rate related to the concomitant higher haemorrhagic risk profile .
Trans-catheter ablation is under-used in female patients and , on the contrary , they are more commonly affected by anti-arrhythmic drug side effects
Atrial fibrillation is the most common supraventricular arrhythmia .
Its prevalence increases with age and preferentially affects male patients .
Over 75 years of age , however , female patients being more prevalent , the absolute number of patients affected is similar between sexes .
Despite this , few data are available in the literature concerning sex-related differences in atrial fibrillation patients .
The present systematic review therefore considers comorbidities , referring symptoms , quality of life , pharmacological approaches  and  trans-catheter ablation  in female rather than in male atrial fibrillation patients in search of parameters that may have an impact on the treatment outcome .