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2007 |
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Archives
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Erectile Dysfunction May Be Earliest Warning of Heart Disease
July 19, 2006
MILAN, July 19 -- Erectile dysfunction
may be masking latent ischemic heart disease, according to researchers
here.
In a study of almost 300 men with coronary artery
disease, erectile dysfunction was seen to appear two to three years
before coronary symptoms, reported Piero Montorsi, M.D., and colleagues,
of the University of Milan online in the European Heart Journal.
And while erectile dysfunction is closely associated
with coronary artery disease, it is more common among patients with
chronic versus acute coronary syndrome, they wrote.
Erectile dysfunction appeared to correlate with
severity of coronary artery disease. It was significantly less prevalent
among men with single-vessel acute coronary syndrome than it was
among men with two- or three-vessel disease acute coronary syndrome
or patients with chronic coronary syndrome (22% versus 55% and 65%
P<0.0001). It also correlated with plaque burden as assessed
by angiography and measured by Gensini score (two in patients with
single-vessel disease versus 21 in patients with two- or three-vessel
disease and 40 in those with chronic coronary disease, P=0.0001).
Moreover, erectile dysfunction symptoms came prior
to coronary artery disease symptoms in virtually all patients, appearing
a mean three years earlier, they wrote.
Patients and controls were recruited from a population
of 3,300 patients who underwent coronary angiography from May 2004
through July 2005.
The authors categorized the 285 patients with established
coronary artery disease into three groups of 95 each. These were
patients with acute coronary syndrome and single-vessel disease,
patients with acute coronary syndrome and two- or three-vessel disease,
and patients with chronic coronary syndrome regardless of the number
of vessels. The groups were compared to a control group of 95 patients
with suspected coronary artery disease who had completely normal
vessels by angiography.
Erectile dysfunction was evaluated using the International
Index of Erectile Dysfunction, a-15-item self-administered questionnaire
with answers scored 0 to 5. Erectile dysfunction is defined as a
score of less than 26.
Among the findings:
Overall the erectile dysfunction prevalence in
patients was 47% (135 of 285).
Among controls erectile dysfunction prevalence was 24% (23 of 95).
Severe erectile dysfunction, defined as an International Index of
Erectile Dysfunction score of less than 10, was present in 26% of
patients, but was significantly more common among men with two-
and three-vessel diseases than among men with single vessel disease
(31% versus 12.5%, P<0.01).
Patients did not undergo anatomical and function
evaluation of penile circulation, and the authors cited that as
a limitation. Additionally, although coronary angiography is considered
the gold standard for detection of coronary artery disease, the
authors noted that that it detects only lumen artery change and
not true plaque volume extension, which is another limitation, they
wrote.
Read the complete news article here:
http://www.medpagetoday.com/Cardiology/AcuteCoronarySyndrome/tb/3758
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