Diabetics Often Require Invasive Treatments for ED
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"Our data show that men with diabetes have a very more refractory treatment course [for ED] than nondiabetics," Thomas J. Walsh, MD, assistant professor of urology on the University of Washington Medical school in Seattle, told Medscape Medical News.
"This is usually a very robust dataset as well as a snapshot of your American population. We now have an enormous pool in men treated over the 5-year period with very meticulous record-keeping," he said. "We understand if they're diabetic, we all know when they are nondiabetic, young children and can whenever they develop ED, therefore we determine what they receive for ED treatment."
The Seattle team reviewed medical-claims data from 136,306 men identified in the Innovus i3 database, containing claims data more than 30 million individuals in the us who join United Medical insurance.
ED was defined by International Classification of Diseases (ICD)-9 coding or by pharmacy claims data showing treatment through an oral phosphodiesterase type 5 inhibitor.
An analysis of diabetes was confirmed by ICD-9 coding or documentation of diabetes-specific treatments.
The researchers compared rates of second-and third-line ED therapies in males with and without preexisting diabetes.
The analysis contained adult male subscribers who were identified as having prevalent and incident ED between January 1, 2002 and December 31, 2006.
In this group, 19,236 men was identified as having diabetes before these folks were diagnosed with ED.
Results indicated that diabetics were 1.6 times very likely than nondiabetics to progress to second-line therapies (95% confidence interval [CI], 1.4 to a single.7) and two.1 times almost certainly going to reach third-line therapies (95% CI, 1.8 to two.6) within five years of ED. Progression to second- and third-line therapies was most dramatic in the first six months of an ED diagnosis.
The research also found that variations in the rates of primary treatment failures between men with and without diabetes increased covering the 60 months of follow-up.
"Our results are convinced that ED among diabetics could be less responsive to primary treatment with oral agents, sooner progressive than ED not connected with diabetes, or both," Dr. Walsh said.
He also noticed that the analysis revealed, unexpectedly, that several men were prescribed ED medications which had not been "coded" for ED. "We found, surprisingly, that the certain contingent in men within our cohort were actually coded with ICD code 607.84 � that is very specific for men who have an organic cause for their ED � but some, more men have been being prescribed medications like Viagra, Levitra, and Cialis wouldn't use a code for ED. It is rather clear that these men had ED, since men are not prescribed [these drugs] for love or money in addition to ED."
He added: "That which you recognize is that often males are going in to find out their primary care doctors and on just how on your way they are saying, 'By the way, I'm possessing problem. You think you could produce a prescription?' Thus think we have now an increased problem on our hands (i.e., ED is a bit more common) than standardized coding is really allowing us to detect. These patients are treated with ED-specific medications although not being called having ED."
Dr. Walsh asserted future research will look at whether tighter diabetes control causes less progression to invasive treatments. Studies should likewise evaluate whether diabetes type or disease duration influences the requirement of more aggressive ED therapy.
"This research implies that first-line therapies for ED in diabetics can be ineffective knowning that patients have to continue to second- and third-line therapies should they want to be effectively treated for their ED," Tobias Kohler, MD, MPH, assistant professor of andrology at Southern Illinois University School of Medicine in Springfield, and AUA spokesperson, told Medscape Medical News.
"Erection problems worsens with poor diabetes control on account of diabetes-related peripheral nerve damage and decreased circulation of blood for the penis," he said. "It's renowned that when men increase their all around health with change in lifestyle, like exercising more, eating a healthy diet plan, and stopping smoking � all the stuff we know we should do � their erections will get better. However, in diabetics, the possibilities just a little more stacked against them for [lifestyle changes] to be effective. The same is true for pills, which are standard first-line therapy. Practitioners who treat diabetics need to find out that there are less possibility that success with first-line agents in diabetics, and they probably ought to reach aggressive treatments earlier."
Finally, Dr. Kohler emphasized that it's donrrrt forget this that "good care is for all patients and, depending on exactly what the patient would likely to accomplish, every man will get more durable if he sees your physician dedicated sexual dysfunction."
This study was performed in collaboration with all the Urologic Diseases of America Project and was based on the nation's Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases. Dr. Walsh and Dr. Kohler have disclosed no relevant financial relationships.
American Urological Association (AUA) 2011 Annual Scientific Meeting: Abstract 1329. Presented May 16, 2011.
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