Dr. Graham Jackson, who established a unique clinic inEngland dedicated to providing sexual advice to men with cardiac disease and ED, conducted the largest scientific study of its kind, on 425 men with ED and cardiac disease. In the study, appearing in the July issue of The Journal of Sexual Medicine, Dr. Jackson wished to see if stable coronary patients with ED could have their oral nitrates discontinued to allow for safe use of a PDE-5 inhibitor, such as Viagra, Levitra or Cialis.

More than half of the men on oral nitrates who were clinically stable with good ability to exercise had their nitrates discontinued in the presence of continuing beta-blockade or calcium antagonist therapy and close follow-up. Over 90% of the men no longer taking nitrates were treated with a PDE-5 inhibitor which was effective in restoring sexual function in 85%. Importantly, there have been no adverse cardiac events in the group.

"This is a huge, groundbreaking advance in our field that shows how multidisciplinary sexual medicine really is," states Irwin Goldstein MD, Editor-in-Chief of The Journal of Sexual Medicine. "Coordinating care between the sexual medicine physician and the cardiologist has provided new evidence-based, prospective data to support better clinical care for those men with ED and cardiac disease, who historically have been denied such care. We now know that oral nitrates can be discontinued in the presence of continuing beta blockade and/or calcium antagonist therapy in stable coronary disease patients with ED to allow for the safe use of PDE-5 inhibitors."

The Center for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that 1 in 12 (8%) or 22 million adults
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Contact: Sharon Agsalda
medicalnews@bos.blackwellpublishing.net
781-388-8507
Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
27-Jun-2005