Methods and results
We analyzed 708 consecutive patients, 579 from whom were males and 129
females (age, 60.5±14 vs. 61.6±17 years old; p=0.44). All patients were
divided into age quartiles for analysis. While the rate of ischemic
cardiomyopathy (ICM) as a cause of prescription of WCD was significantly
higher in males as compared to females (42.7% vs. 26.4%; p=0.001),
females received it more frequently due to non-ischemic cardiomyopathy
(NICM) (55.8% vs. 42.7%); p=0.009). The wear time of WCD was
equivalent in both groups (21.1±4.3 hours/days in males vs. 21.5±4.4
hours/days in females; p=0.27; and 62.6±44.3 days in males vs. 56.5±39
days in females; p=0.15). Mortality was comparable in both groups at
2-year-follow-up (6.8% in males vs. 9.7% in females; p=0.55).
Appropriate WCD shocks and the incidence of device implantations were
similar in both groups (2.4% in males vs. 3.9% in females; p=0.07)
(35.1% in males vs. 31.8% in females; p=0.37), respectively. In age
quartile analysis, compliance was observed more in older patients as
compared to adult patients (87.8% vs. 68.3%; p<0.001).