Correlation between penile cavernosal artery blood flow and retinal vascular findings in arteriogenic erectile dysfunction

Objectives: Arteriogenic erectile dysfunction (ED) is a target organ disease of atherosclerosis, and therefore might be a predictor of systemic atherosclerosis. Being systemic, it might be possible to evaluate the extent of atherosclerosis from retinal vascular findings. We investigated the possible correlation between penile cavernosal artery blood flow and retinal vascular findings in patients with arteriogenic ED.

Patients and methods: Sixty patients with ED were divided according to the peak systolic velocity (PSV) in their penile cavernosal arteries into two groups; Group A included 30 patients with PSV less than 25 cm/sec, and Group B included 30 patients with PSV more than 35 cm/sec. Blood flow in the penile cavernosal artery was measured with color Doppler ultrasonography. All patients were assessed by ocular fundus examination under amydriatic conditions to evaluate retinal vascular atherosclerotic changes using Hyman's classification.

Results: Evidence of retinal vascular atherosclerotic changes was found in 19 patients (63.3%) in Group A and in 10 patients (33.3%) in Group B.

Conclusions: Our study confirms the possibility of predicting penile arterial vascular status in patients with ED from their retinal vascular findings by using amydriatic simple, practical funduscopy.