A new report in the March edition of Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association suggests that erectile dysfunction (ED) is an indicator of potentially deadly heart conditions.
For the study, doctors in Germany surveyed 1,549 male cardiovascular patients from 13 different countries, finding that nearly 55 percent had reportedly mild to severe cases of ED. Over a five-year period, they found an 11.3 percent death rate among those reporting cases of ED, with 16 percent of those deaths resulting from cardiovascular disease.
According to researchers, this new data could provide another early indicator for doctors in diagnosing adverse heart conditions in older male patients.
"Men with ED going to a general practitioner or a urologist need to be referred for a cardiology workup to determine existing cardiovascular disease and proper treatment," said Michael Bohm of Germany's University of Saarland in a press release. "ED is an early predictor of cardiovascular disease."
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