The Impotence Exploration and Treatment Center warns of the risks of cardiovascular disease in patients with erectile dysfunction.
As a preamble, let us recall what a erectile dysfunctionor erectile dysfunction : this is the inability to obtain or maintain an erection sufficient to have a satisfactory sexual relationship. Unlike sexual breakdown, the disorder is not one-time.
Although many causes can explain its occurrence, such as obesity or hormone-related disorders, anxiety or depressionarterial damage might also explain it.
Erectile dysfunction: Heart failure?
Thus, on Wednesday January 11, the Center for the Exploration and Treatment of Impotence (CETI) presented a study to the National Academy of surgery. She suggests that erectile dysfunction might be a predictor of serious heart attacks likemyocardial infarction.
To reach this conclusion, they followed 20 patients aged 41 to 68, with erectile dysfunction of vascular origin, but without signs of cardiac disorder. They all underwent CT examination.
What results?
The vast majority of patients, 90%, presented parallel damaged coronary arteries. And in case of obstruction by a clot, the infarction can occur.
“Dyears 19 cases out of 20, there was already arterial damage with young subjects, from 40 to 50 years old, and all the more severe as they were young”said surgeon Ronald Virag at France Inter.
Three of the operated patients
How can this potential link be explained? According to the French Federation of Cardiology, “the arteries of the penis and those of the heart have identical operation. Erection is a vascular mechanism involving vasodilation, which in the event of a disorder hurts, which can signal a vascular anomaly”.
However, the CETI wants to be reassuring. Indeed, erectile dysfunction can prevent myocardial infarction and thus prevent death. The Cardiology Federation adds that it “has been shown that the loss of erection frequently precedes the occurrence of an acute cardiovascular accident by 3 to 5 years”.
Prof. Virag concludes: “This study overwhelmingly confirms the predictive factor of patent and latent coronary lesions of erectile dysfunction of arterial origin regardless of their severity. Their early detection makes it possible to hope, in the future, for a reduction in sudden deaths or severe inaugural myocardial infarctions”.
