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 .
Quality of life improves with treatment in the Canadian Trial of Atrial Fibrillation.
BACKGROUND The impact of atrial fibrillation ( AF ) and its treatment on health-related quality of life ( QOL ) is not well understood . We assessed QOL in patients with symptomatic AF participating in the Canadian Trial of Atrial Fibrillation . METHODS Self-report QOL question naires including the Short-Form-36 ( SF-36 ) , symptom checklist ( SCL ) and AF Severity Scale ( AFSS ) were completed at baseline and 3 , and 12 months after r and omization . RESULTS The study group was aged 65 + /- 10 years and 59 % were male . By design , 50 % of patients were r and omized to amiodarone ( n = 132 ) , 25 % to sotalol ( n = 66 ) , and 25 % to propafenone ( n = 66 ) . Most patients had normal left ventricular function ( 89 % ) .  Physical ( 41.9 + /- 9.3 to 43.7 + /- 9.2 , P = .001 ) and mental health ( 47.5 + /- 10.5 to 49.0 + /- 9.8 , P = .023 ) summary measures from the SF-36 improved significantly from baseline to 3 months . Arrhythmia symptom frequency and severity ( SCL ) also improved markedly from baseline to 3 months ( symptom frequency 20.4 + /- 9.4 to 16.2 + /- 9.5 and symptom severity 16.7 + /- 8.2 to 12.9 + /- 7.4 , both P < .001 ) . QOL improvements were not significantly different among the groups r and omized to amiodarone , sotalol , or propafenone . However , patients with no symptomatic recurrences of AF had higher scores at 3 months on measures of global well-being than those with recurrences in the first 3 months ( 7.4 + /- 1.8 vs 6.9 + /- 1.8 , P < .05 ) . There were no significant QOL changes from the 3 to 12 month assessment . CONCLUSION In patients with symptomatic AF , QOL improves after treatment , independent of the specific drug used for treatment . This is especially true for patients in whom treatment prevents AF recurrence
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 .