Abstracts from the XI Swedish Heart Association, April 22-24, 2009, Uppsala, Sweden.

Background Blood pressure research is an extensive, expensive and profitable activity. During a five year period more than 21 000 articles were published on the subject blood pressure and almost 21 000 articles on the subject hypertension. There are physiological, anatomical and pathological differences between men and women and it is therefore of importance to see how gender is reported in the scientific abstracts.