Man-vrouwverschillen in de optimale dosering van medicatie voor hartfalen

Despite known sex differences in pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics, the target dosages for heart failure medication recommended by international guidelines are the same for both men and women. In a recent post-hoc analysis in The Lancet, Santema and colleagues evaluated sex-based differences in clinical outcomes related to the dosage of three classes of heart failure drugs. They found that women may reach the peak benefit of angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors, angiotensin receptor blockers (ARBs), and β blockers at half the recommended target dosage. This commentary discusses the study by Santema and colleagues and its implications for clinical practice.

Conflict of interest and financial support: potential conflicts of interest have been reported for this article.