title: [Sexuality and heart disease].
abstract: Sexual activity represents a light physical effort in most subjects with or without heart disease. In a small number of patients with heart disease sexual activity may trigger cardiac symptoms and even induce serious cardiac problems, such as myocardial infarction or sudden cardiac death due to malignant ventricular arrhythmias. However, the global risk remains very low. Thus, it is important to stratify patients with heart disease into risk groups which may help to counsel them to resume sexual activity, to identify those patients at higher risk for cardiac events and to treat those with sexual dysfunction, particularly when using 5-phosphodiesterase inhibitors for erectile dysfunction.
authors.affiliation: Centre cardio-pulmonaire, Clinique de Carouge 5, avenue Cardinal-Mermillod 1227 Carouge. juan.sztajzel@latour.ch
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Sztajzel
mesh_terms: D006331:Heart Diseases / Q000503:physiopathology*; D006801:Humans; D018570:Risk Assessment; D012725:Sexual Behavior / Q000502:physiology*