Are men at risk? The role of testosterone in cardiovascular morbidity

Right ventricular (RV) function is affected by and contributes to a number of disease processes, including pulmonary hypertension (PH), congenital heart disease, left ventricular (LV) dysfunction, and valvular heart disease. The importance of RV function, however, in diseases of epidemic proportion has generally been underestimated in the past, as it possesses only one-fifth of the muscular mass of the LV, and its function is restricted to pumping blood through a single organ . In recent years, significant attention toward the understanding of the prognostic value of RV function has predicted its important contribution to cardiovascular disease. Although the interdependence between the two ventricles has been well established with the notion that LV failure is a major contributor of RV dysfunction, the knowledge garnered from LV failure is not necessarily to be extrapolated to RV dysfunction. The anatomical features of the RV and the pathophysiology that leads to its dysfunction are categorically different from that of the LV. Specifically, LV mass and function are critically impacted by the dynamics of the systematic circulation whereas RV mass and function are associated with the pulmonary circulation.