Diabetes mellitus, hypertriglyceridemia, and heart disease risk in women.

Abstract

Coronary heart disease is the most common cause of death in men and women in developed countries. Three primary risk factors--high serum cholesterol concentration, hypertension, and cigarette smoking--are known to increase the risk in both men and women more or less equally, although the latter two risk factors are a somewhat greater risk to men. This paper reviews two additional risk factors whose impact may be greater in women: diabetes and hypertriglyceridemia. Understanding how diabetes and hypertriglyceridemia act differently in women may explain some of the sex differences in the risk of heart disease.