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 .
Risk of proarrhythmic events in the Atrial Fibrillation Follow-up Investigation of Rhythm Management (AFFIRM) study: a multivariate analysis.
OBJECTIVES This study examined the risk of proarrhythmic events in patients receiving antiarrhythmic drugs for treatment of atrial fibrillation ( AF ) according to present-day safety guidelines . BACKGROUND Advances in underst and ing the proarrhythmic risk of antiarrhythmic drugs has led to development of safety guidelines for these agents . Such guidelines were used in the Atrial Fibrillation Follow-up Investigation of Rhythm Management ( AFFIRM ) study . METHODS This study was an analysis of the risk of arrhythmic events ( arrhythmic death , resuscitated cardiac arrest , sustained ventricular tachycardia ( VT ) , and torsade de pointes VT ) in the antiarrhythmic drug arm of the AFFIRM study . Each time an antiarrhythmic drug was begun , it was counted as an exposure to that drug and the risk of an arrhythmic event was calculated . RESULTS A total of 2,033 patients received 3,030 exposures to antiarrhythmic drugs . Ninety-six arrhythmic events occurred by six years . Patients with a left ventricular ejection fraction < 40 % had more arrhythmic events . Twelve documented cases of torsade de pointes VT were noted . The incidence of torsade de pointes was 0.6 % at five years ( 95 % confidence interval 0.32 to 1.07 ) . CONCLUSIONS The overall risk of adverse arrhythmic events upon exposure to antiarrhythmic drugs in the AFFIRM study was reasonably low . Strict criteria for the safe use of antiarrhythmic drugs were successful in minimizing proarrhythmic events
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 .