Background: Cardiovascular diseases represent the leading cause of mortality and disability worldwide.
Variations in gender-/sex-specific research patterns between different cardiovascular
endpoints are unclear. We compared frequency, content and funding scheme of published
gender/sex-specific cardiovascular research between stroke and myocardial infarction
(MI). Methods: Systematic literature search in Pubmed was performed for gender/sex-specific articles
in stroke and MI published 1978–2008. A specifically designed text-mining programme
including gender-/sex-specific search terms was used. Abstracts were screened for
gender-relevance and classified by two independent investigators into epidemiology,
pathophysiology, clinical presentation, management, outcomes research, and reviews.
For identification of funding sources only abstracts published between 1999 and 2008
were screened and classified into unknown, none, EU, industry, charity/foundation,
multiple fundings, national/governmental/research council, universities, others. Results: The initially retrieved 962 articles were limited to 406 (42%); 132 (32%) in stroke
and 274 (68%) in MI. Reviews represented 8% of literature in MI and 14% in stroke.
Clinical presentation (5% vs. 3% for MI and stroke, respectively) and outcomes research
(23% vs. 21%) displayed little difference, while epidemiological (25% vs. 13%) and
pathophysiological topics (20% vs. 11%) were more frequently investigated in stroke.
Management received little attention (17%) in stroke, while representing the major
focus in MI (40%). Gender research in both diseases progressively increased in recent
years, although an 8–10 year time lag was present for stroke. Unspecified (42% vs.
32%) and multiple sources (30% vs. 27%) were most common sources of funding for both
diseases. National/governmental/research council and charity/foundation funding was
higher in stroke (23 vs. 17% and 9% vs. 2%, respectively) denoting slight differences
in funding profiles. Conclusions: While gender and sex differences are increasingly considered in MI research, this
topic appears to be largely neglected in stroke research, especially in the area of
management. Furthermore, slight differences in research schemes emerged.
