Background. Cardiovascular diseases remain as the leading cause of morbidity and mortality in industrialized countries. Ageing and gender strongly modulate the risk to develop cardiovascular diseases but very few studies have investigated the impact of gender on cardiovascular diseases in the elderly, which represents a growing population. The purpose of this study was to test the impact of gender and physical activity level on several biochemical and clinical markers of cardiovascular risk in elderly individuals. Methods. Elderly individuals (318 women ( years-old) and 227 men ( years-old)) were recruited. Physical activity was measured by a questionnaire. Metabolic syndrome was defined using the National Cholesterol Education Program Expert Panel’s definition. Polysomnography and digital tonometry were used to detect obstructive sleep apnea and assess vascular reactivity, respectively. Blood was sampled to measure several oxidative stress markers and adhesion molecules. Results. The frequency of cardiovascular diseases was significantly higher in men (16.4%) than in women (6.1%) (). Body mass index ( vs. ) and glycaemia ( vs. ) were lower, and High Density Lipoprotein (HDL) ( vs. ) was higher in women compared to men (). Oxidative stress was lower in women than in men (uric acid: vs. , advanced oxidation protein products: vs. , malondialdehyde: vs. ). Physical activity was not associated with lower cardiovascular risk factors in both genders. Multivariate analyses showed an independent effect of gender on acid uric (; ), advanced oxidation protein products (; ), and HDL concentration (; ). Conclusion. These findings suggest that biochemical cardiovascular risk factors are lower in women than men which could explain the lower cardiovascular disease proportion observed in women in the elderly.

中文翻译：

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性别和体力活动水平对老年人心血管危险因素和氧化应激生物标志物的作用。

背景。心血管疾病仍然是工业化国家发病率和死亡率的主要原因。老龄化和性别强烈调节患心血管疾病的风险，但很少有研究调查性别对老年人心血管疾病的影响，而老年人群代表着不断增长的人口。本研究的目的是测试性别和身体活动水平对老年人心血管风险的几种生化和临床标志物的影响。方法。老年人（318 名女性（岁）和 227 名男性（岁））被招募。体力活动是通过问卷来衡量的。代谢综合征的定义使用国家胆固醇教育计划专家小组的定义。多导睡眠图和数字眼压计分别用于检测阻塞性睡眠呼吸暂停和评估血管反应性。对血液进行取样以测量几种氧化应激标志物和粘附分子。结果。男性心血管疾病的发病率（16.4%）明显高于女性（6.1%）（）。体重指数（对比)和血糖 (对比)较低，而高密度脂蛋白 (HDL) (对比)女性高于男性 (）。女性的氧化应激低于男性（尿酸：对比，高级氧化蛋白产品：对比，丙二醛：对比）。在两性中，体力活动与较低的心血管危险因素无关。多变量分析显示性别对酸尿酸有独立影响（; ),高级氧化蛋白产品 (; )和 HDL 浓度 (; ）。 结论。这些研究结果表明，女性的生化心血管危险因素低于男性，这可以解释在老年女性中观察到的心血管疾病比例较低。