Study of Carotid Intimal Medial Thickness by Ultrasonography as A Marker of Subclinical Atherosclerosis in Males with Vasculogenic Erectile Dysfunction,
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- Category: Vol. 84, March 2016
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Study of Carotid Intimal Medial Thickness by Ultrasonography as A Marker of Subclinical Atherosclerosis in Males with Vasculogenic Erectile Dysfunction, AHMED T. AHMED, GAMILA M. ALI, AHMED A. HWARY and LAILA K. ABD EL-KREAM
Abstract
Purpose: To evaluate the possibility of considering mea-sured Carotid Intima-Media Thickness (C-IMT) in patients with arteriogenic Erectile Dysfunction (ED) as a marker for prediction of subclinical atherosclerosis, and furthermore Coronary Artery Disease (CAD) as well.
Patients and Methods: A total of eligible 74 male with arteriogenic erectile dysfunction and similar normal ones older than 35 years, were subjected in our case-control study; sampled in a simple random manner. All patients underwent laboratory assessment of total serum cholesterol, Low Density Lipoproteins (LDL-c), High Density Lipoproteins (HDL-c) and serum triglycerides, ECG, transthoracic echocardiography, exercise stress test and B-mode ultrasonography with color Doppler arterial flow pattern of the Carotid arteries to assess the Intima-Media Thickness (C-IMT). Patients with ED un-derwent penile color Doppler examination and calcified upon the International Index of Erectile Function-5 (IIEF-5).
Results: We found a high statistically significant difference between the two studied groups in having abnormal C-IMT along the whole carotid tree bilaterally; as: 78.4% of the case group (58 subjects) had an abnormal C-IMT in comparison with 12.2% in the control group (9 subjects), with (p=0.000). We also found that erectile dysfunction, low HDL and high TG are independent predictors for carotid atherosclerosis with (p=0.000, 0.001 & 0.048) respectively. However, other factors as age, smoking, hypertension, diabetes, high cholesterol and high LDL are not independent predictors for carotid athero-sclerosis.
Conclusion: Men with ED but without clinical arterio-sclerosis may have increased carotid artery IMT. That increased C-IMT may identify men with ED and associated VRFs who should aggressively correct VRFs to decrease the future risk of acute cardiovascular events. Therefore, the presence of ED in men with known VRFs may help in identifying, by ultra-sonographic determination of common carotid artery IMT, patients with an increased risk of future vascular events that deserve a more aggressive treatment.