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RESEARCH PRODUCT

Female Vascular Senescence

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Long before the existence of cardiovascular imaging, Sir William Osler axiom that “man is as old as his arteries”. Followed by several physicians for decades, this aphorism has been widely confirmed by studies demonstrating that risk factors for cardiovascular disease increase as we age (Cooper et al., 1994; Lakatta & Levy, 2003). Nevertheless, a flaw in this statement is the generalization that men and women age similarly. Much data from clinical and basic research have established that vascular aging in women does not follow the same chronology as in men (Shaw et al., 2006; Pereira et al., 2010; Takenouchi et al., 2009). If known risk factors that influence cardiovascular aging are excluded (e.g. smoking, cholesterol, hypertension), men display a pattern of progressive vascular aging, while timing for vascular aging in women presents a clear hallmark, i.e. menopause (Taddei et al., 1996; Bucciarelli & Mannucci, 2009). Until menopause women are considered “hemodynamically younger” than men, based on epidemiological studies showing that the incidence of cardiovascular diseases in premenopausal women is markedly low compared to age-matched men (Messerli et al., 1987; Bairey Merz et al., 2006; Shaw et al., 2006). After menopause, however, these numbers rise to values that are close, or even higher, to those found in men (Lerner & Kannel, 1986; Eaker et al., 1993; Eaker et al., 1994). And so it one could say that “man is as old as his arteries, although the arteries of a woman are as young as her hormones”.