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 .
Gender Differences in the Risk of Ischemic Stroke and Peripheral Embolism in Atrial Fibrillation: The AnTicoagulation and Risk factors In Atrial fibrillation (ATRIA) Study
Background —Previous studies provide conflicting results about whether women are at higher risk than men for thromboembolism in the setting of atrial fibrillation ( AF ) . We examined data from a large contemporary cohort of AF patients to address this question . Methods and Results —We prospect ively studied 13 559 adults with AF and recorded data on patients ’ clinical characteristics and the occurrence of incident hospitalizations for ischemic stroke , peripheral embolism , and major hemorrhagic events through search ing vali date d computerized data bases and medical record review . We compared event rates by patient sex using multivariable log-linear regression , adjusting for clinical risk factors for stroke , and stratifying by warfarin use . We identified 394  ischemic stroke and peripheral embolic events during 15 494 person-years of follow-up off warfarin . After multivariable analysis , women had higher annual rates of thromboembolism off warfarin than did men ( 3.5 % versus 1.8 % ; adjusted rate ratio [ RR ] , 1.6 ; 95 % CI , 1.3 to 1.9 ) . There was no significant difference by sex in 30-day mortality after thromboembolism ( 23 % for both ) . Warfarin use was associated with significantly lower adjusted thromboembolism rates for both women and men ( RR , 0.4 ; 95 % CI , 0.3 to 0.5 ; and RR , 0.6 ; 95 % CI , 0.5 to 0.8 , respectively ) , with similar annual rates of major hemorrhage ( 1.0 % and 1.1 % , respectively ) . Conclusions —Women are at higher risk than men for AF-related thromboembolism off warfarin . Warfarin therapy appears be as effective in women , if not more so , than in men , with similar rates of major hemorrhage . Female sex is an independent risk factor for thromboembolism and should influence the decision to use anticoagulant therapy in persons with AF
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 .