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Pills for Erectile Dysfunction Linked to Fewer CVD Deaths
Pills for Erectile Dysfunction Linked to Fewer CVD Deaths
Men with stable CAD who are being treated for erectile dysfunction (ED) have a lower risk of dying if their medication is a phosphodiesterase 5 (PDE5) inhibitor rather than alprostadil, observational data from Sweden show. Additionally, treatment with a PDE5 inhibitor was associated with a significantly lower risk of MI, revascularization, hospitalization for HF, and cardiovascular mortality when compared with alprostadil.To get more news about buy vigrx plus, you can visit vigrxplus-original.com official website.
The results lend support to the idea that there’s something uniquely beneficial to PDE5 inhibitors, Daniel P. Andersson, MD, PhD (Karolinska University Hospital, Stockholm, Sweden), and colleagues report in a paper published this week in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.
“Vasculogenic ED has been proposed to be an early manifestation of atherosclerosis and to precede presentation of coronary artery disease,” they explain. “Men with ED have been identified as a high-risk population for incident cardiovascular disease. Conversely, treatment for ED is associated with a lower risk of death and development of cardiovascular disease.”
The link between treatment and outcome was confirmed in a previous analysis by the same group that looked at men who’ve had a first MI, some of whom weren’t receiving any drug to address ED.
This time around, the researchers focused on men with stable CAD who were being treated for ED with either a PDE5 inhibitor or alprostadil, in case there was something different between those who did or didn’t seek treatment, said senior author Martin J. Holzmann, MD, PhD (Karolinska University Hospital).
PDE5 inhibitors, whether sildenafil, tadalafil, or vardenafil, are given orally. Alprostadil, in contrast, is a vasodilator applied locally that wouldn’t exert systemic effects. He cautioned that this doesn’t eliminate the potential for “confounding by indication,” due to differences between who’s taking PDE5 inhibitors versus alprostadil.
Only a randomized controlled trial can provide definitive answers on whether PDE5 inhibitors are cardioprotective, Holzmann stressed. If successful, PDE5 inhibitors would be a novel addition to drugs aimed at preventing cardiovascular events, he concluded. “It’s a completely different mechanism. That’s quite intriguing, I think.”
Using data from the Swedish Patient Register and the Swedish Prescribed Drug Register, the investigators compared 16,548 men treated with a PDE5 inhibitor and 1,994 treated with alprostadil. The data set spanned from 2006 through 2013. Patients taking alprostadil tended to be older, were more likely to have comorbidities (heart failure, diabetes, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, stroke, PAD, active cancer, and atrial fibrillation), and were more apt to be taking cardiovascular medications.
Over a mean follow-up of 5.8 years, death rates were 14% in the PDE5-inhibitor group and 26% in the alprostadil group. After adjustment for potential confounders, risk continued to be significantly lower with PDE5 inhibitors for mortality as well as for MI, hospitalization for heart failure (HF), cardiovascular mortality, and revascularization.
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