@article{3162772,
    title = "Prediction of Cardiovascular Events With Aortic Stiffness in Patients
With Erectile Dysfunction",
    author = "Vlachopoulos, Charalambos and Ioakeimidis, Nikolaos and Aznaouridis, and Konstantinos and Terentes-Printzios, Dimitrios and Rokkas, Konstantinos and and Aggelis, Athanasios and Panagiotakos, Dimosthenis and Stefanadis, and Christodoulos",
    journal = "JOURNAL OF HYPERTENSION",
    year = "2014",
    volume = "64",
    number = "3",
    pages = "672-678",
    publisher = "Lippincott, Williams & Wilkins",
    issn = "-",
    doi = "10.1161/HYPERTENSIONAHA.114.03369",
    keywords = "erectile dysfunction; pulse wave analysis; vascular stiffness",
    abstract = "Erectile dysfunction confers an independent risk for cardiovascular
events and total mortality. Aortic pulse wave velocity (PWV) is an
important predictor of cardiovascular events and all-cause mortality. We
investigated whether PWV predicts major adverse cardiovascular events
(MACEs) in patients with erectile dysfunction beyond traditional risk
factors. MACEs in relation to PWV were analyzed with proportional
hazards models in 344 patients (mean age, 56 years) without established
cardiovascular disease. During a mean follow-up of 4.7 years (range,
1-8.5 years), 24 of 344 participants (7.0%) experienced a MACE.
Subjects in the highest PWV tertile (>8.8 m/s) had a 4-fold higher risk
of MACEs compared with those in the lowest PWV tertile (<7.6 m/s;
adjusted hazard ratio, 3.97; P=0.035). A PWV value of 7.81 m/s was
associated with a negative predictive value (ability to rule out MACE)
of 98.1%. Addition of PWV to standard risk factor model yielded correct
patient reclassification to higher or lower risk category by 27.6%
(P=0.0332) in the whole cohort. Our results show that higher aortic
stiffness is associated with increased risk for a MACE in patients with
erectile dysfunction without known cardiovascular disease. Aortic PWV
improves risk prediction when added to standard risk factors and may
represent a valuable biomarker of prediction of cardiovascular disease
risk in these patients."
}