Abstract
BACKGROUND: Evidence is accumulating in favour of a link between erectile dysfunction (ED) and coronary artery diseases. We investigated the presence of cardiac injury in patients who have had arteriogenic and nonarteriogenic ED using the hs-Tn levels. METHODS: The diagnosis of ED was based on the International Index of Erectile Function 5-questionnaire (IIF-5) and patients were classified as arteriogenic (A-ED, n = 40), nonarteriogenic (NA-ED, n = 48), and borderline (BL-ED, n = 32) patients in relation to the results of echo-color-Doppler examination of cavernous arteries. The level of hs-TnT and hs-TnI was measured in 120 men with a history of ED of less than one year with no clinical evidence of cardiac ischemic disease. RESULTS: The levels of both hs-TnT and hs-TnI were within the reference range and there was no significant (P > 0.05) difference between patients of the three groups. The hs-CRP values were higher in A-ED men compared with NA-ED (P = 0.048) but not compared with BL-ED (P = 0.136) and negatively correlated with IIF-5 (r = -0.480; P = 0.031). CONCLUSIONS: In ED patients of the three groups the measurement of hs-Tn allows us to exclude the presence of cardiac involvement at least when the history of ED is less than one year and the men are without atherosclerotic risk factors.