Endocrine Abstracts

Aim: To evaluate prevalence of erectile dysfunction (ED) in patients with type 2 diabetes in relation to the cardiovascular risk factors.

Methods: A total of 116 males including type 2 diabetic patients (n=68, mean age: 56.7 (5.8) years) and age-matched healthy controls (n=48, mean age: 57.0 (6.6) years) were included to study. Concomitant hypertension, hyperlipidemia, and coronary artery disease (CAD) were recorded in each subject along with measurement of carotid artery intima–media thickness (CIMT) and evaluation of ED via International Index of Erectile Function (IIEF-5) questionnaire.

Results: Patient and control groups were similar in terms of percentage patients with concomitant hypertension (42.6 and 25.0%), hyperlipidemia (51.5 and 39.6%), and CAD (33.8 and 22.9%) while CIMT measurement (mm) revealed significantly higher values for patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus than controls (P=0.020). ED was determined in 75.0% of diabetic patients and in 60.4% of controls with identification of severe ED in 29.4% of overall patient population and 39.2% of patients with ED, whereas only in 10.4% of controls. ED scores was significantly lower in patients than controls (14.3 (7.3) vs 18.2 (6.3), P=0.004) with significantly higher percentage of patients than controls in the category of severe dysfunction (29.4 vs 10.4%, P=0.014). No significant relation of hypertension, hyperlipidemia, CAD and CIMT to ED was noted.

Conclusion: ED skores are lower in type 2 diabetes mellitus but not correlate with carotis intima media ticknes or coronary arter disease. ED is not suitable for describing cardiovascular risk in type 2 diabetic patients.