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Impotence may point
to heart
January 21, 2004
Erectile dysfunction
might be an early warning sign of blood vessel
problems that can lead to heart attack or stroke,
a new study finds.
The researchers found subtle problems in the
arteries of men in their mid-40s who had erectile
dysfunction but otherwise appeared to be healthy,
says a report in the Jan. 21 issue of the Journal
of the American College of Cardiology.
Implications go both ways
The finding has implications for the treatment
of both erectile dysfunction and prevention
of heart disease and stroke, says study leader
Dr Alan Bank, medical director of research at
the St. Paul Heart Clinic in Minnesota, USA.
If they have erectile dysfunction, they should
be treated more aggressively for high blood
pressure, smoking and other risk factors for
cardiovascular disease, Bank says. An added
benefit is the drugs used for those risk factors
might also improve sexual
function.
Bank and his colleagues have started another
study in which drugs such as statins, which
reduce blood cholesterol levels, and ACE inhibitors,
given for high blood pressure, can improve sexual
performance of men with erectile dysfunction
who have not responded well to Viagra, the first
drug marketed for treatment of the problem.
It will take a while to get results, but we
are getting early indications that they might
be effective, Bank says.
Other studies have suggested a link
Some large epidemiological studies have pointed
to a link between erectile dysfunction and cardiovascular
conditions such as heart attack and stroke,
Bank says. His study made a detailed examination
of the brachial artery in the arms of 30 men
with erectile dysfunction and a control group
of 27 age-matched men without the problem. All
were free of known risk factors for cardiovascular
disease, such as high blood pressure, diabetes
and smoking.
The arteries of men with erectile dysfunction
had a worse response to measures to make them
expand, such as nitroglycerine tablets. That
failure to increase blood flow, a known factor
in erectile dysfunction, can also affect arteries
in the heart and other parts of the body, Bank
explains.
There is something abnormal about the smooth
muscles in the artery walls, he says.
Hope for future treatments
The finding offers a lot of hope for improvement
for treatment of both cardiovascular disease
and erectile dysfunction, Bank says. We know
a lot about blood vessel walls.
To provide a unified approach, a panel of five
cardiovascular specialists and five urologists
met last August and developed a set of guidelines
about how to approach erectile dysfunction -
what tests to do, how to handle the problem,
Bank says. The guidelines have been submitted
for publication in a medical journal.
These results need confirmation and more explanation,
says Dr Melvin Cheitlin, professor emeritus
of medicine at the University of California,
San Francisco. Nevertheless, he says, this is
the first time as far as I can tell that someone
is saying that people with erectile dysfunction
may have problems with smooth muscle relaxation.
A sign not to be ignored
The important message of the study is that
erectile dysfunction can be a sign that an individual
is at risk of arterial disease that can affect
the coronary arteries, he says.
A flagging penis should raise the red flag
of warning to evaluate the patient for arterial
disease elsewhere, Cheitlin concludes in the
editorial. - (HealthDayNews)
source:-http://www.health24.co.za
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