The incidence of impotence is higher amongst hypertensive males, whether treated or not, than amongst normotensives. Antihypertensive agents have been cited as the most common medicine-related cause of erectile dysfunction (ED). Forty five hypertensive impotent males were divided into three groups with no antihyper- tensive treatment, treatment with B adrenergic blocker and treatment with an ACE inhibitor, and were compared with one another and with a similar group of normotensives. In the untreated group the principal cause of ED was arterial insufficiency followed by psy- chogenic factors. In the group treated with atenolol, eight patients had cavernosal arterial insufficiency, three had veno-occlusive dis- order and four had psychogenic impotence. In the third group treated with captopril, four patients had cavernosal arterial insufficiency, three had penile veno-occlusive disorder and the remainder had normal results of the investigations. It appears that ACE inhibitors such as captopril are associated with a lower incidence of erectile dysfunction than B-adrenergic blockers. |
