Tehran, Apr 22 (IANS): Women with some heart disease are more likely to give birth to girls, says a study conducted by a university in Iran. It found that 75 percent of the 216 children born to 200 pregnant women with diagnosed heart diseases were girls.

"We believe that this is the first study looking at the relationship between gender and the mother's cardiac disease," A. Alizadehasl of Tabriz University said in a statement. "We hope that this will lead to further investigation into this area."

Sixty-four percent of the pregnant women in the study group were diagnosed with valvular disease (involving one or more of the heart valves), 19 percent had dilated cardiomyopathy (heart unable to pump blood efficiently) while 14 percent had uncorrected or significant residual congenital heart disease (defect in the heart's structure and great vessels present at birth).

"This is a very interesting observation," said Kathryn Taubert, chief science officer, World Heart Federation. "The chromosomes in a man's sperm are responsible for the sex of a baby but this study suggests that there may be a relationship between the health status of the mother and the sex of the babies she is able to carry to full-term. As the number of women with heart disease is increasing around the world, this could prove to be an interesting area for further research."

The findings were presented at the World Heart Federation's World Congress of Cardiology in Dubai recently.