Exaggerated Right Ventricular Dysfunction in Females with Group 3 Pulmonary Hypertension

Group 3 pulmonary hypertension (PH) patients have disproportionate right ventricular dysfunction (RVD) as compared to pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) patients, but the cause of the divergent RV phenotypes is unknown. One potential mechanism may be biological sex as females have better RV function than males. However, the combined effects of PH type and sex on RV function are unexplored. Therefore, we evaluated how sex and PH etiology modulated RVD in a single-center cohort study. Male sex was not associated with significant differences in RV function when comparing PH etiologies. However, female Group 3 patients had more pronounced RVD than female PAH patients. In particular, Group 3 females had marked reduction in RV function when pulmonary vascular resistance was matched. Group 3 females were older than PAH females, but the exaggerated RVD was still observed in postmenopausal (age≥55) Group 3 females. This suggests lung disease exacerbates RVD in Group 3 females.