Asymmetric development of peripheral atherosclerosis in patients with erectile dysfunction: an ultrasonographic study.
Recent literature focused on erectile dysfunction (ED) as a reliable predictive parameter of cardiovascular diseases. ED patients have a higher prevalence of atherosclerotic lesions (increased intima-media thickness and plaques) at carotid site, but data on femoral site are still lacking. Nevertheless, there is accumulating evidence concerning a significant involvement of femoral atherosclerosis in other clinical conditions associated to ED, such as diabetes mellitus and coronary disease. Therefore, we investigated the prevalence of carotid and femoral atherosclerotic lesions and penile peak systolic velocity (PSV) in 238 ED patients by Eco-Colour Doppler ultrasonography (US). We found - irrespective of the presence of cardiovascular risk factors - a significant increase of atherosclerotic lesions in ED group with respect to 52 controls (66.4% versus 36.5%) and a higher prevalence of atherosclerosis at the femoral site (23.1% versus 5.7%), also with respect to the carotid site (8%). Moreover, PSV was significantly lower in ED patients with atherosclerosis compared to those without atherosclerotic lesions (41.9+/-15.3 cm/s versus 55.2+/-17.7 cm/s), and it was particularly low in those with combined carotid and femoral atherosclerosis (34.8+/-13.3 cm/s) and those with isolated carotid atherosclerosis (37.9+/-13.0 cm/s). These data confirm the strong relation between atherosclerosis and ED, an asymmetric development of atherosclerotic lesions in ED patients and suggest to perform an US study of both femoral and carotid district in these subjects.
Foresta
Carlo
C
Department of Histology, Microbiology and Medical Biotechnologies, Centre for Male Gamete Cryopreservation, University of Padova, Via Modena 9, 35128 Padova, Italy. carlo.foresta@unipd.it
Palego
Pierfrancesco
P
Schipilliti
Mirko
M
Selice
Riccardo
R
Ferlin
Alberto
A
Caretta
Nicola
N
D000328:Adult; D050197:Atherosclerosis / Q000150:complications* / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D002339:Carotid Arteries / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000473:pathology; D002340:Carotid Artery Diseases / Q000150:complications* / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D007172:Erectile Dysfunction / Q000150:complications*; D005263:Femoral Artery / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000473:pathology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010413:Penis / Q000098:blood supply* / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D012039:Regional Blood Flow; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D014463:Ultrasonography